What happened: Slack files documents to go public, revealing financial data previously not seen by the public
Why it matters: The messaging service was founded by Vancouverite Stewart Butterfield and maintains offices in Vancouver. An initial public offering portends to more growth.
Messaging service Slack Technologies, Inc. has released financial data revealing US$400.5 million in revenue and US$138.9 million in losses over its last fiscal year.
The company, founded by Vancouverite Stewart Butterfield in 2009, released the prospectus in a filing to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission as one of the first steps towards going public.
Slack is headquartered in San Francisco but it maintains a multi-storey office in Yaletown, allowing Canadian CEO Butterfield access to a workplace in the same city he maintains a home.
Butterfield’s total compensation came to US$10.3 million during the fiscal year ending January 31, 2019, according to the filing.
That includes a salary of US$356,952 and stock awards of US$9.8 million.
The CEO received a pay bump last year, jumping from an annual base salary of US$234,949 to US$430,000 after June 30, 2018.
Slack’s previous financing round, announced in August 2018, raised US$427 million and brought its valuation to US$7.1 billion.
Since then, its number of daily active users has grown from 8 million to more than 10 million.
“Around the world, over 600,000 organizations in over 150 countries have turned to Slack as the place to communicate, collaborate, and get work done,” the company wrote in the filing.
“Over 10 million people inside those organizations — accountants, customer support reps, engineers, lawyers, journalists, dentists, chefs, detectives, executives, scientists, farmers, hoteliers, salespeople, and many others — collectively spend more than 50 million hours in active use of Slack in a typical week, on either a free or paid subscription plan.”
Slack has applied to be traded under the symbol of “SK” on the NYSE.
