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Pinterest just officially filed for an IPO

Ben Silbermann
Pinterest, led by CEO Ben Silbermann, filed to go public on Friday. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
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Pinterest, the website for "pinning" images and shopping, filed a public S-1 on Friday in preparation for an IPO that could take place as soon as April.

The company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "PINS," according to its S-1. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Allen & Company will lead the IPO.

Though frequently compared to the cohort of social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Pinterest characterized itself in the S-1 as a place to "discover ideas" and focused on its identity as a place for "search", "dreaming" and "productivity."

The company generated $755.9 million in revenue for 2018, up 60% from $472.9 million in 2017. But the company is still losing money. It had a net loss of $63 million in 2018, compared to a loss of $130 million in 2017.

The company also revealed statistics about its userbase — called "pinners" — which it said includes "eight out of 10 moms." The company said it has 250 million monthly active users, two-thirds of whom are women. In the US, that includes 43% of all internet users, the company said citing Comscore data.

Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark, Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity and Valiant all own more than 5% of Pinterest, though the company didn't disclose specifics of ownership in the S-1.

The company will list with a dual-class structure in which Class A shares have one vote per share, while Class B shares have 20 votes per share, a voting structure which tends to benefit founders and early shareholders.

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Becky Peterson was formerly a tech features correspondent focused on long-form profiles and investigations into the most interesting people and companies at the intersection of technology and finance.She's broken news on major tech stories including Palantir's work on Project Maven, Peter Thiel's $18 million estate in Miami (which was once featured on MTV's 'The Real World'), Jeffrey Epstein's tour of SpaceX, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's insistence that employees take "the D."Previously, she covered enterprise tech and tech investment banking with a focus on M&A, IPO and venture capital deals in San Francisco. She graduated from New York University with a master's degree in media, culture and communication with an emphasis on technology and society. ExpertiseSilicon Valley, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine MaxwellPopular articlesInside the turmoil at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where employees say divorce, Epstein, and vaccines have left some staffers polishing their résumésThe secret life of Ian Osborne, the shadowy 38-year-old cofounder of Chamath Palihapitiya's SPAC who has built the ultimate black book of billionairesSilicon Valley VCs are at war with the 'far left radicals' running CaliforniaInside the life of Ghislaine Maxwell's secret husband, a once-high-flying tech entrepreneur backed by Eric Schmidt who is now a central figure in one of the country's most high-profile legal casesRent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman, one of the most successful female founders, is fighting to save her companyJeffrey Epstein set Elon Musk's brother up with a girlfriend in effort to get close to the Tesla founder, sources sayA drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.