12
REMARKS
○ Is it an endangered species? Not yet.
But vigilantes are thinning the herd○ By Michael P. Regan
You could call them the unicorn
vigilantes. And they have a message
for the big startups looking to make the
move from private investment havens
to public markets: Stay away from Wall
Street until you get your act together.
Much like the so-called bond vigilan-
tes of the 1980s and ’90s—they started
selling when they saw signs of inflation,
pushing up interest rates even before
the Federal Reserve could act—analysts,
fund managers, and other investors are
showing signs of increased vigilance
about all the new equity being pushed
onto the stock market. They’re casting
suspicious looks at the unicorns (the
nickname used for startups with pri-
vate valuations of $1billion or more)
that are losing large amounts of money.
And at those with convoluted corporate
ownership schemes and plans for multi-
class share structures that water down
the voting power of ordinary inves-
tors. And at those that present them-
selvesastechcompanies,deservingof
SiliconValleyvaluations,wheninfact
theirbusinessesaremoremundane.Time
For the
Unicorn
Talk
theirbusinessesaremoremunda