Some privacy please! Casper Sleep, the e-commerce company that sells sleeping products direct-to-consumer, wants to put its public title back to sleep (bad pun intended). The company is being acquired by private equity firm Durational Capital Management, with the deal expected to be completed in early 2022. Casper Sleep will sell for $6.90 per share, which is quite a disappointing valuation considering that it went public a little more than a year ago, priced at $12 per share.
The decision to stop trading on the bourse comes after bad third-quarter results — and "bad" is truly saying it lightly. In Q3 of 2021, Casper Sleep reported losses amounting to $25.3m, compared to a loss of $15.9m just 12 months ago. So what went wrong with Casper? An overcrowded marketplace, together with the infrequency of mattress purchases, made life difficult for the company.
Why it matters
In the year when US IPOs hit an annual record in less than six months, perhaps going public too early is a thing. Even more awkward is that Casper went public just over a year ago. So, we have to realize that even in a market booming with IPOs, there will be exceptions.
