iQIYI (IQ) began trading on the Nasdaq on 29 March 2018

iQIYI, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides online entertainment services under the iQIYI brand in China.

Ticker: IQ

• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Internet Content & Information
• Full Time Employees: 8,577
• http://www.iqiyi.com

Bilibili (BILI) started trading on the Nasdaq on 28 March 2018

Bilibili Inc. provides online entertainment services for the young generations in the People's Republic of China. It offers a platform that covers a range of genres and media formats, including videos, live broadcasting, and mobile games.

• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Internet Content & Information
• Full Time Employees: 1,903
• Founded in 2009
• HQ: Shanghai, China
• http://www.bilibili.com

The offer price was in the middle of an expected range of $10.50 to $12.50.

Bilibili, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, tries to associate itself with “Generation Z" — those born between 1990 and 2009.  It has 76 million monthly average users. The company notes 82% of users are Gen Z individuals.

It makes most of its money — 83.4% of revenue last year — from games played on mobile devices, such as the popular “Fate Grand Order,” a role-playing game, or RPG.

Bilibili launched the RPG September 2016, and revenue soared from $83 million that year to $379 million in 2017.

But the company clearly has hopes for something broader, perhaps more like like Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube mashed up with Facebook (FB).

Tallgrass Energy (TEGP) acquires Tallgrass Energy Partners (TEP); changes name and ticker symbol

Tallgrass Energy GP (TEGP) agrees to acquire Tallgrass Energy Partners (TEP) in a taxable stock-for-unit merger transaction in which TEP unitholders would receive two TEGP shares for each outstanding TEP common unit.

• Quarterly distributions will be increased: The TEGP Class A share Q1 dividend is raised to $0.4875, or $1.95 annualized, and the TEP common unit Q1 distribution is raised to $0.975, or $3.90 annualized.
• Upon closing the proposed transaction, TEGP will change its name to Tallgrass Energy LP and trade on the NYSE under the symbol TGE.

Dropbox (DBX) began trading on the Nasdaq on 23 March 2018

Dropbox Inc. provides a collaboration platform worldwide. Its platform allows individuals, teams, and organizations to create, access, and share content online. The company was formerly known as Evenflow, Inc. and changed its name to Dropbox, Inc. in October 2009.

• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Software - Infrastructure
• Full Time Employees: 1,858
• Founded in 2007
• HQ: San Francisco, California.
• http://www.dropbox.com

Offer price: $21
Offer size: $869 million

MuleSoft (MULE) to be acquired by Salesforce (CRM) for $6.5 billion

Mulesoft  (MULE) was acquired by Salesforce (CRM) for $6.5 billion in a cash and stock deal. (May 2, 2018)

  

• Mulesoft had one of the best opening IPO days of 2017 when it went public a year ago on the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to its public offering, Mulesoft raised money from Salesforce Ventures.
• MuleSoft’s  technology is used by customers to link their business apps, databases, and corporate IT infrastructure into a unified system. 
• MuleSoft says it currently has more than 1,000 customers worldwide. They include McDonalds (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO) and Netflix (NFLX).
• 4pm update: Salesforce will pay $44.89 per share for Mulesoft, a 36 percent premium — each Mulesoft share will equal $36 in cash and 0.0711 shares of Salesforce common stock, the companies said. The deal is expected to close by the end of July.

Report of Salesforce takeover talks

3/20/18 : (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc is in advanced discussions to acquire U.S. software maker MuleSoft Inc, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

A deal could be announced as soon as this week, the sources said, cautioning that negotiations had not been finalized and that an agreement was not certain.

The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Salesforce and MuleSoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Spotify files amended IPO prospectus

Spotify is a music, podcast, and video streaming service that was officially launched on 7 October 2008. It is developed by Spotify AB in Stockholm, Sweden. It provides DRM–protected content from record labels and media companies.

• Launched: 7 October 2008; 9 years ago
• Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
• Employees: 2,960+
• Founded: April 23, 2006
• Users: 159 million (71 million paying)

Spotify files amended IPO prospectus; discloses that it is registering 55.7 million shares for trading

• In an amended filing, SPOT discloses that it is registering for resale up to 55.7 million shares. Since this is not a typical IPO, the sale of shares is not being underwritten by any investment bank. Rather, shares are being sold exclusively by registered shareholders -- who may or may not elect to sell shares once SPOT opens for trading.

• Sales will be conducted through brokerage transactions on the NYSE, and the opening price will be determined by buy and sell orders collected by the NYSE. For reference, SPOT has traded via private transactions within a range of $37.50-$125 in 2017. And, from Jan. 1, 2018-March 18, 2018, the price range was $48.93-$132.50.

• SPOT is currently expected to open for trading on April 3.

Zuora to file for IPO early this year

It’s another exit for Benchmark Capital, the VC firm that owns 11 percent of the company.

The enterprise company Zuora on Friday said it had filed to go public, yet another IPO for a highly-valued tech company during a winter when companies apparently feel the markets are pretty friendly.

Zuora, which provides billing and other services to subscription software companies, is backed by some high-profile venture capital firms, most prominently Benchmark, which owns about 11 percent of the company, according to Zuora’s SEC filing.

Tien Tzuo, founder of Zuora, is taking the company public soon.

The company notched almost $180 million in the last fiscal year, the company said, and was valued at around $750 million during its last round of financing in 2015, according to PitchBook.

It’s the latest tech company to file in a rush of high-profile IPOs at the start of 2018. Shares of Dropbox are expected to begin trading next week, and Spotify shares will start on April 3.

=Model N (MODN) : 5-year performance

Model N, Inc. is a software company founded in 1999. The name "Model N" refers to "model next", as in 'the next big thing', according to founder Zack Rinat.
Headquarters: Redwood Shores, CA
modeln.com

Description

Model N, Inc. is a provider of revenue management solutions for life science and technology companies. The Company's solutions enable its customers to maximize revenues and reduce revenue compliance risk by transforming their revenue life cycle from a series of tactical, disjointed operations into a strategic end-to-end process. The Company's solutions include Revenue Enterprise Cloud, Revenue Intelligence Cloud and Revvy Revenue Management. The Company provides solutions that span the organizational and operational boundaries of functions, such as sales, marketing and finance, and serve as a system of record for revenue management processes, including pricing, contracts, rebates, incentives and regulatory compliance. The Company's application suites are designed to work with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications. The Company also offers implementation services, managed services, strategic services and customer support.

Key stats and ratios

	Q4 (Dec '17)	2017
Net profit margin	-13.46%	-30.15%
Operating margin	-10.32%	-29.44%
EBITD margin	-	-18.28%
Return on average assets	-12.19%	-27.76%
Return on average equity	-51.45%	-73.60%
Employees	864

Zscaler (ZS) started trading on the Nasdaq on 16 March 2018

• 12.0 million (originally 10.0 million) shares priced at $16, above the upwardly revised range of $13-$15 (originally $10-$12). 
• The deal raised $192 million in gross proceeds, which is $82 million, or, 75% more than anticipated. 

OverviewZS is the developer of a security cloud platform which is distributed to more than 100 data centers helping them to accelerate their IT migration to the cloud. This includes the migration of applications from a corporate data center to the cloud, and from a legacy "hub-and-spoke" system (WANs) to an updated direct-to-cloud network. ZS' platform allows traffic to be routed locally and securely to the internet via broadband and cellular connections.

The company's two core services are:

• ZScaler Internet Access (ZIA): This solution securely connects users to externally managed apps, including SaaS applications, and internet destinations, regardless of device, location, or network. It is designed to ensure malware does not reach the user and valuable corporate data remains safe.

• ZScaler Private Access (ZPA): This service offers authorized users secure and reliable access to internally managed applications hosted in enterprise data centers or the cloud. The ZPA product connects a specific user to specific applications, without bringing the user on the network. This results in better security and is different from traditional remote access solutions like VPNs.

ZS has over 2,800 customers across all major geographies and its customer base spans every major industry. It implements a joint sales approach in which its sales force develops relationships directly with customers. It bolsters its sales presence by levering its network of telecom service providers, system integrators, and re-seller partners.

Financials
Looking at the financials, for FY17, revenue jumped by 56% to $156.4 million. The growth in revenue was driven by a 14% increase to its customer base, as well as sales of additional subscriptions to existing customers. This is reflected by its very healthy dollar-based retention rate of 115%.

Meanwhile, gross margin increased to 78% from 75%, due to better efficiency of its technology, infrastructure, and data centers, enabling technological improvements.

But, despite the strong revenue growth and rise in gross margin, its loss from operations widened to ($35.1) million from ($26.8) million in FY16. The cause is tied to a a 60% spike in Research & Development costs, due to increased headcount, and a 118% surge in General & Administrative costs. 

Address
110 Baytech Dr Ste 100
SAN JOSE, CA 95134-2302
United States - Map
+1-408-5330288 (Phone)
+1-302-6365454 (Fax)
Website  https://www.zscaler.com/

Tilly's (TLYS) reported earnings on Mon 12 March 2018 (a/h)

** charts before earnings **

  

** charts after earnings **

  

Tilly's misses by $0.02, misses on revs; guides Q1 EPS in-line 

• Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $0.23 per share, including small tax charge, $0.02 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.25; revenues rose 2.6% year/year to $164.3 mln vs the $166.39 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Comps flat.
• Co issues in-line guidance for Q1, sees EPS of ($0.01)-0.03 vs. $0.01 two analyst estimate; expects its first quarter comparable store sales to range from flat to a low
  single-digit percentage increase

Proteostasis Therapeutics (PTI): Breakthrough Therapy Designation for PTI-428 in Cystic Fibrosis

 

Proteostasis Therapeutics announces that the FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for PTI-428, the Co's cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) amplifier
FDA granted the Breakthrough Therapy Designation for PTI-428 for the treatment of CF in homozygous patients for the F508del mutation who are receiving Orkambi as background therapy. The designation was based on the results from a recent Phase 2, randomized, placebo controlled study of PTI-428, in 24 CF subjects on background treatment with Orkambi and who were treated with either 50 mg PTI-428 once daily or placebo for 28 consecutive days. The study results showed that treatment with PTI-428 led to mean absolute improvement in percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (ppFEV1) of 5.2 percentage points.

Casa Systems (CASA) : 4-month performance

Casa Systems is pioneering advanced ultra-broadband 5G solutions for mobile, cable, fixed and converged service providers.

• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Communication Equipment
• Full Time Employees: 1,066
• Founded in 2003 
• Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts
• http://www.casa-systems.com

Long trade : ZSAN +160% (3/18)

• March 6:  $8.70;  vol. 3.2 M 
• March 9:  $22.84  -->  +160%
• ZSAN IPO 1/27/15  at $11;  1-for-20 reverse stock split Jan 2018

  

Burlington Stores (BURL) reported earnings on Thur 8 March 2018 (b/o)

 ** charts before earnings **

 

** charts after earnings **

Burlington Stores beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides FY19 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus 

• Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $2.17 per share, $0.08 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $2.09; revenues rose 14.9% year/year to $1.94 bln vs the $1.89 bln Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Net income on a 14 week basis increased 92% over the prior year period to $241 million, or $3.47 per share vs. $1.77 last year; this result included $0.04 in EPS from the 14th week. 
  • Comparable store sales increased 5.9%
• Co issues upside guidance for FY19, sees EPS of $5.73-5.83, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $5.28 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY19 revs of $6.63-6.69 bln vs. $6.45 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
  • Comparable store sales to increase in the range of 2% to 3% on top of last year's 3.4% increase
  • To open 35 to 40 net new stores, and invest Net Capital Expenditures of approximately $250 million

GlycoMimetics (GLYC) reported earnings on Tue 6 March 2018 (b/o)

• Also announces its design for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate GMI-1271 in combination with MEC Mitoxantrone, etoposide and Ara-C or in combination with fludarabine, cytosine arabinoside and idarubicin in individuals with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia

** charts before earnings **

 

** charts after earnings **

 

GlycoMimetics misses by $0.02 

• Reports Q4 EPS of ($0.27) vs ($0.25) Capital IQ consensus; co reported no revs (as expected)
• Cash position: As of December 31, 2017, GlycoMimetics had cash and cash equivalents of $123.9 million as compared to $40.0 million as of December 31, 2016.
• Operations - In the Phase 3 trial of rivipansel, being conducted by our collaborator Pfizer, investigators are evaluating patients hospitalized for vaso-occlusive crisis of sickle cell disease. Pfizer reports that the study remains on track for completion in the second half of 2018.

GlycoMimetics announces its design for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate GMI-1271 in combination with MEC Mitoxantrone, etoposide and Ara-C or in combination with fludarabine, cytosine arabinoside and idarubicin in individuals with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia

• The design is aligned with guidance received from the FDA.
• The single pivotal trial is planned to enroll 380 adult patients worldwide and is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2018. The primary endpoint will be overall survival, and censoring for transplant in the primary efficacy analysis will not be required.
• Key secondary endpoints will include incidence of severe mucositis and remission rate, which will be assessed in a hierarchical fashion for potential inclusion in the product labeling, if GMI-1271 is approved by the FDA. In 2017, GMI-1271 received Breakthrough Therapy Designation.
• "Reaching alignment with the FDA on overall survival as the primary endpoint for the trial, without statistical censoring for transplant, positions GMI-1271 well for a potential successful outcome," said Rachel King, Chief Executive Officer of GlycoMimetics. "Getting more patients to transplant following treatment with GMI-1271 is one of our goals for this therapy. If we accomplish this, we hope GMI-1271 will contribute to prolonged overall survival for relapsed/refractory AML patients. We believe this is a rigorously designed Phase 3 trial that has the potential to bring us one step closer to meeting the significant unmet needs of this patient population. In addition, we believe that our trial design should streamline the path to data on overall survival, considered the 'gold standard' of clinical benefit, and that if this primary endpoint is achieved, it should position GMI-1271 optimally with U.S. and European regulatory agencies, as well as in the marketplace."