Roblox to Go Public in March

Roblox is finally on its way to a direct listing after months of delays. 

In December, the video game company announced it was pushing back its go-public date in order to raise its IPO price. Roblox then changed course in January, stating plans to go public in February through a direct listing, after raising $520 million in Series H funding.

Now, the company says its direct listing will take place in March after the SEC scrutinized its method of recognizing revenue.

By adopting the SEC’s requests, Roblox changed how it reports “consumable” game items, differentiating them from “durable” items. The changes were also applied retroactively.

“We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting which resulted in our restatement of our financial statement for the years ended December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2019 and the nine months ended September 30, 2020,” the filing said.

• Updated numbers show revenue through September rose to $613.9 million, up 70% from a year earlier. 
• Previous numbers indicated revenue was up 68% to $588.7 million.
• The company’s net loss was also updated to $194.5 million from $213.3 million.

Roblox’s valuation rose to $29.5 billion in January, compared to just $4 billion the year prior.