KKR-Backed Applovin Files for Nasdaq Listing After Posting Loss

(Bloomberg) -- Mobile apps company Applovin Corp. filed for a U.S. initial public offering, disclosing that it flipped from a profit to a loss last year despite revenue gains.

The Palo Alto, California-based company in its filing Tuesday listed the amount of the IPO as $100 million, a placeholder that will likely change. The number of shares and their proposed price range will be disclosed in a later filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Applovin has completed several acquisitions to scale up in recent years. It announced in May that it was acquiring game-maker Machine Zone, which people familiar with the matter said was valued in the deal at about $500 million. It also bought Berlin-based Adjust in a deal that valued the maker of tools to measure the performances of apps at close to $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.

The company said in the filing that it had a net loss of $126 million on almost $1.5 billion of revenue in 2020, compared with $119 million in net income on $994 million in revenue the previous year. It attributed the reversal in income partly to increased stock-based compensation, the filing shows.

KKR & Co., which acquired a stake in Applovin in 2018, and Chinese investor Hontai Capital are listed among the company's biggest shareholders.

The Class A shares in the offering will carry one vote each, while its Class B shares will have 20. The holders of Class B shares are expected to enter an agreement for their shares to be voted together and Applovin will qualify as a controlled company, according to the filing.

Applovin plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol APP. Its offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., KKR, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

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