Oura Unexpectedly Delays IPO & Phoebe Bridgers Bans Phones From Her Shows

Neal Freyman (0:01)

Good Morning Brew Daily show. I'm Neal Freyman.

Toby Howell (0:03)

And I'm Toby Howell.

Neal Freyman (0:04)

Today, while you'll never see a video of a Phoebe Bridgers concert.

Toby Howell (0:08)

Then the smart ring maker, Oura, shocked the market by delaying its IPO.

It's Wednesday, September 30th. Let's ride.

Neal Freyman (0:20)

Sometimes you gotta give yourself a pat on the back, and we're doing just that on this international podcast day. Morning Brew Daily is up for a Signal Award, which hands out accolades to the world's best podcasts in the business category. And we need your help to win. This is decided by a fan vote. So whoever rallies their listeners the most will add to their trophy case. Toby, think the MBD gang is up to the challenge.

Toby Howell (0:43)

I know they're up to the challenge because we were also nominated in this category last year, and we did pretty well taking home the audience vote. If you want to vote for Morning Brew Daily, we will put a link in the show description. Signal does make you put in your email to vote, it takes 20 seconds total. Also, if you voted last year, which I know every single one of you did, you should already have an account. Last year, we were in a dogfight with the Pivot Podcast hosted by Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher. This year, it looks like we're fighting with The Verge's Podcast Decoder. They are at 36% of the vote right now. We're sitting at just 22% as of this morning. Let's switch that one more time, vote at the link in the show description.

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Neal Freyman (1:31)

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Toby Howell (1:35)

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Toby Howell (2:15)

Oura, a company that tells you if you're ready to take on the day, is telling investors it's not ready to take on the public markets. The smart ring maker was supposed to go public yesterday with an average of $15 billion, but surprised everyone by postponing its IPO instead, citing uncertainty in the market. Companies try to set up their debuts for the ideal time, hoping to begin trading under the most bullish conditions possible. So postponing to wait for greener pastures is not out of the question. But what had people scratching their heads is, these are pretty dang green pastures we're in. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 hit a record high last week and is up 3% in September, while the S&P 500 is up 12% for the year. The time appears to be now, Aura, plus demand was there with the IPO shaping up to be four times oversubscribed. But it's also not that hard to find warning signs to the 10-year treasury yield is at its highest level since 2007 In September's consumer confidence reading was the lowest since 2014

CEO Tom Hale humble bragged that Aura has quote, the luxury of choosing our moment given the strength of its business. However, since the vibes were slightly off, it opted for a different moment instead. Aura isn't alone in their choice either. One nuclear and one insurance company also recently postponed their debuts citing market conditions. I wouldn't elevate this to the level of a Toby's trends quite yet, but it is telling to see a strong business, see a market near all-time highs and still say, uh-uh, we're good.

Neal Freyman (3:42)

Yeah. Market whispers like Axios' Dan Primack, who have sources inside, said that this was basically because Oura wasn't able to get the price that it wanted, wanted to raise as much as $2.2 billion, valuing it at $15.6 billion. Investors just seem to balk at that valuation.

It also comes at a time when Apple is releasing its upgraded health app, which does a lot of the same things that Oura's app does as well. So they're seeing increased competition in this space. Everyone is releasing a health tracker. They're trying to get a $16 billion valuation. There's some hairy things going on with oil and treasury yields. Yes, stocks are very much near an all-time high, but maybe those are a few of the reasons why Oura backed away is because they wanted to be valued at something. Investors weren't giving it to them, so they're just going to wait it out.