The only stock market said late Tuesday that the reference price for Roblox, which goes public tomorrow, is $45 a share.


With about 652 million shares outstanding, the reference price indicates that Roblox’s market capitalization might be the maximum amount of $29.3 billion. 

Roblox will trade Wednesday on the NYSE under the symbol RBLX. Existing stockholders have registered about 199 million shares purchasable, but 388.2 million shares could potentially be sold. Unlike during a traditional IPO, the corporate isn’t raising new capital via the offering. Instead, holders will sell stock they already own.

The $45 reference price doesn’t mean that's where Roblox shares will begin trading. Rather, it's meant to be a guide that informs the general public of recent private trading activity, consistent with an individual conversant in things. 

On Wednesday morning, the NYSE will collect buy and sell orders from broker-dealers. a delegated market maker will then determine Roblox’s opening price after consulting with the company’s financial advisors.

Direct listings aren’t new but have gained attention lately. Roblox is going to be the fifth company to travel public using this method.

Palantir Technologies (ticker: PLTR), Asana (ASAN), Slack Technologies (WORK), and Spotify Technology (SPOT) all used direct listings to form their public equity-market debuts. Companies typically don’t raise capital via direct listings, although in December, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule change proposed by the NYSE that permits a corporation to try to do so.

Roblox won’t receive any proceeds from shareholders who sell their stock. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America are advising Roblox on the deal.

When Spotify went public on the NYSE in 2018, its reference price was the extent of the last private secondary trades. In Slack’s 2019 listing, the point of reference was closely informed by the volume-weighted average price of the recent secondary trading activity, but it wasn’t the precise average, the person said.


Unlike the worth range set by the underwriters of a standard IPO—usually an inexpensive indicator of the offer price—the reference price isn’t particularly useful as a gauge of where a directly listed stock will trade.

Both Palantir and Asana went public in September using direct listings. Palantir’s reference price was $7.25, but the stock opened on Sept. 30 at $10, hit a high of $11.42, and closed at $9.50. While Asana’s reference price was $21, it opened at $27, peaked at $29.96, and ended at $28.80. 

Founded in 2004, Roblox hosts child-friendly games focused on digital characters resembling Lego blocks. a mean of 37.1 million people come to Roblox daily to play games.

Roblox isn't profitable. Losses widened to $253.3 million for 2020, compared with $71 million in 2019. Revenue rose nearly 82%, to $923.9 million. David Baszucki, Roblox’s co-founder, president, and CEO, has 70.1% of the entire voting power, the prospectus said.