Wayfair Files for Initial Public Offering

Wayfair’s filing was for up to $350 million of class A common stock. Financial terms of the offering were not disclosed. Wayfair plans on listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “W.”

Investors here do not to be aware that there are two classes of common stock. The Class A shares are entitled to one vote per share. Class B stock is entitled to 10 votes per share but is convertible into one share of Class A stock. This is a method of maintaining control through time while not owning the majority of the financial interests.

The underwriters for this initial public offering are numerous and include: Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Allen & Company, Pacific Crest Securities, Canaccord Genuity, Piper Jaffray, Cowen & Co., Wells Fargo Securities, and Raymond James.

Three venture capital firms (with voting interests) are involved. There are Battery Ventures (6.15%), Great Hill Partners (11.43%), and Harbourvest Partners (7.03%) –and their affiliates.

Wayfair has a large footprint online spanning across its 5 distinct brands: Wayfair.com, Joss % Main, All + Modern, Dwell Studio, and Birch Lane. These brands sell over 7 million products from over 7,000 suppliers.

Wayfair also pointed out in its filing that the demographic target market is the 35 to 65 year old woman with an annual household income between $60,000 and $175,000. This demographic was originally reached through many niche websites that Wayfair owned until late 2011 when it decided to consolidate those into the Wayfair.com brand.

Wayfair also works through a direct shipping method where it keeps minimal inventories and the suppliers ship straight to the customer. To date, Wayfair has shipped over 11.8 million orders. From 2003 to 2011, net revenue grew organically from $7.7 million to $517.3 million to put this in perspective this is a 69.2% compound annual growth rate.

FULL WAYFAIR SEC FILING