Going Private Again Is All the Rage Among Newly Public Companies

Ten companies that went public in 2020 or 2021 have already agreed to go private amid a post-IPO-boom hangover

The IPO market faces its worst year in two decades, forcing some companies to slash their valuations by nearly 80% and seek funding in private markets. WSJ explains why the market for public offerings has frozen and what it would take to thaw. Photo Illustration: Ryan Trefes

A growing number of newly public companies are racing back to private ownership after discovering that an IPO isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.

Of the hundreds of companies that went public in the boom years of 2020 and 2021, 10 have already agreed to sell themselves to private-equity firms, according to Dealogic. Of those that went public in 2018 or 2019, only eight have gone private in the ensuing years.

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