You'll soon be able to buy Roblox Stock ($RBLX) and invest in a popular multiplayer game that has seen an explosion in microtransactions revenue and merchandising in recent years.
Roblox is a game that, at its base, serves as a social hangout for players. However, its most powerful asset is probably the ability for people to make and sell custom content ranging from character skins to entirely new modes of gameplay. It's proven to be pretty popular — especially among younger children — and you'll soon be able to invest in the company on the stock market.
According to Seeking Alpha, a filing with the New York Stock Exchange indicates that the massive gaming company will finally go public early next month after two false starts. The company was recently valued at $29.5 billion in a private fundraising round — that's more than seven times its value compared to last year. Furthermore, a report from CNBC notes that the company made $613.9 million in the first three quarters of 2020, exceeding its revenue forecasts by more than $25 million.
Roblox stock was originally going to be made available through an Initial Public Offering, or "IPO." Once the floodgates open, a company could see explosive and immediate growth in its value if the IPO is a success.
However, the company has elected to take a slightly different path by entering the stock market through Direct Listing. In simple terms, a Direct Listing bypasses some of the standard IPO processes and directly sells stock to the public; however, this carries several risks such as a lack of a guarantee for share sales, less promotion of the stock without underwriters and large trading firms advocating for the stock, and a greater likelihood of volatility in the share price. Roblox will be trading as $RBLX on the New York Stock Exchange.
When Can I Buy Roblox Stock?
You'll be able to buy Roblox stock "on or about" March 10, 2021. That is, of course, presuming that the company does not decide to delay taking the company public for the third time, and stick with their plans for a direct listing.
The Roblox team had originally intended to kick off an IPO in late 2020. Unfortunately, both Airbnb and DoorDash had IPOs of their own during the same period and the company made the (likely wise) decision to hold off so as to capture the maximum amount of attention from the market.
Update (02/22/21, 3:25 PM EST) – The Roblox team has announced that it will host an Investor Day on February 26, 2021, according to a press release. An "Investor Day" is typically a meeting that explains a company's financial stats to potential investors. The event will be hosted on YouTube.
What do you think of Roblox going public on the New York Stock Exchange? What other game developers do you think would do well on the stock market? Let us know in the comments below!
