The 10 worst IPO failures of all time

1. Robinhood

Robinhood’s Initial Public Offering was deemed one of the worst IPOs ever for a company of its size, with shares falling as much as 10% within minutes of the opening of trading.

Photo: Robinhood

The company ended its first day of trading at a $29 billion valuation, well short of the $35 billion valuation that had been expected.

2. Pets.com

Makes the list of worst IPOs in history largely because of how quickly the company’s downfall happened.

Photo: Pets.com / Wiki Commons.

After raising $82.5 million in its February 2000 IPO, the company filed for bankruptcy a mere nine months later.

3. Uber

Was deemed a Wall Street flop after the company failed to meet its expected valuation of $120 billion upon its debut.

Photo: freestocks.org

While the ride-sharing company aimed for a $45 per share price at opening, it opened at $42 instead before closing down at $41 per share for the first day of trading.

4. SmileDirectClub

The stock was initially priced at $23 per share, opened at $20.55 per share and continued to fall throughout the trading day, eventually ending down 27.5%.

SmileDirectClub’s first day of trading in September 2019 ended up being one of the worst IPOs in decades.

5. Root

an auto insurance startup, looked promising enough when its IPO raised $724.4 million in 2020.

Since then, the insuretech stock’s share price is down nearly 90% since its initial offering and the company’s valuation has been cut in half.

6. Casper Sleep Inc.

Got off to a shaky start, with shares trading at $12 to start. The company revised its IPO price down from an initial target range of $17 to $19 per share.

The IPO put the company’s valuation at around $470 million, well below the $1.1 billion valuation it had previously garnered through private fundraising.

7. Etsy

Etsy ended up being one of the worst IPOs of 2015.

After its stock price nearly doubled from $16 to $27 on the first day of trading, the trend began to move in the other direction with prices eventually falling below $10 per share.

The stock has since rebounded, but Etsy is notable for being one of the worst-performing IPOs in recent history.

8. TheGlobe.com

One of the worst of the dotcom bubble era and in overall IPO history

The company’s stock jumped an astonishing 600% in the first day of trading, raising $27.9 million in its IPO. But less than two years later, the NYSE delisted the stock after it fell below $1 per share.

9. Vonage

The IPO was so bad that the company was eventually sued over it and three U.S. investment banks received fines from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

After falling short of the initial $17 price point, share prices continued to tumble, eventually bottoming out in the peak of the Great Recession at under $0.50 per share.

10. Omeros

The company saw its stock price decline 36% in the worst two weeks of trading alone.

Biotech company Omeros was one of the worst IPO flops of 2009.

Over the years, the company’s share price has see-sawed, most recently dropping below $10 per share in October 2021 and hovering there through the beginning of 2022.

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