A new ticker symbol showed up on the Nasdaq today: S-O-N-O. That’s for Sonos, the popular maker of wireless speakers. After 16 years as a private company, the Santa Barbara, California based Sonos sold its shares to the public at the IPO price of $15. That was below the preliminary pricing range of $17 to $19 valuing the company at $1.8 billion on fully diluted basis. The company had targeted around $3 billion. On its first day of trading, Sonos shares rose 33 percent, closing at $19.91.
Speaking to Fortune, CEO Patrick Spence explained the discrepancy.
“We found that people were nervous given the state of the market,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter where it trades today, it matters where it’s going to be in a year, five years, 50 years.”
It was certainly a momentous day for Sonos as Spence rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq. And it was an extra special occasion because Sonos and the Nasdaq collaborated to compose a new jingle to accompany the bell-ringing. It was such a hit that Nasdaq officials plan to play that tune every day to mark the opening and closing of the markets.
Sonos is the pioneer of so-called “smart” wireless speakers with high-end audio quality. Sonos products are sold in over 50 countries but the U.S. is the number one market and accounts for nearly half of its revenue. But now the market for these high-end speakers is booming and competition is heating up. Amazon, Apple and Google are muscling into the market promoting smart speakers of their own. Sonos uses technology and services from most of these powerful tech companies and Spence says he’s not worried.
“All those tech giants put their music streaming on our platform, that’s why people love it,” Spence said. “We will put all the services consumers want on one platform which I think is in the long-term interest of the consumers.”
Watch the interview above for more from our interview with Spence.
