It was one of the most anticipated — and worst kept secrets — in the DTC business, but it finally happened. Last week Casper, the mattress company that was one of the first in the direct-to-consumer business that has since expanded into a variety of allied products and opened up its distribution to traditional retailers announced it was going public.
Their numbers showed some good growth over the years — in both the top line revenue gains and the bottom lines losses. From this perspective at least, the overall sales were impressive but I frankly expected to see even worse losses.
The market has not been good for tech-based companies going public and maybe the Casper folks figured it was now or never to get this sucker to Wall Street. We’ll have to see what the final asking price will be and how that will establish the overall worth of the company, but both numbers could be lower than they might have been even a few months ago.
Casper has done a good job expanding its product base beyond being a one-trick pony but it remains to be seen if they can establish a sustainable business. The spaces for being acquired or branching out way beyond the sleep products market have already been explored by others so Casper will have to prove it has legs.
If not, it could indeed be true to its name: potentially scary and a ghost of a business.
WarrensReport 