Woman rides a Bird e-scooter in southern California.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Bird, a provider of electric scooters that consumers can rent in cities, said the New York Stock Exchange will suspend trading of its stock after the company failed to keep its market capitalization above $15 million for 30 consecutive days.
The company’s shares will trade on the over-the-counter exchange starting Monday, according to a statement.
Electric scooter and bike rentals became a trendy alternative to public transit and ride sharing prior to the pandemic, when venture capitalists were pumping money into all sorts of growth areas regardless of how unprofitable they were. Bird raised over $500 million, and was valued at $2.5 billion in a 2019 round led by Sequoia Capital.
The onset of Covid in 2020 brought the business almost to a halt as cities went into lockdown. Growth resumed in 2021, but the bubble days were over.
That year Bird went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, but the economics continued to deteriorate. Its net loss swelled to $359 million in 2022 from $215 million a year earlier. Revenue in that span increased 28% to $245 million.
The stock lost 80% of its value this year, closing on Friday at 90 cents and giving it a market cap of $11.6 million. That’s after a 1-for-25 reverse stock split meant to get the stock trading back above $1.
In June, Travis VanderZanden, a former Lyft and Uber executive who founded Bird in 2017 and was once described as “the electric-scooter king,” left the company.
Earlier this week, Bird acquired scooter startup Spin for $19 million, including $10 million in cash.
“We firmly believe that BRDS current market cap does not reflect the intrinsic value of the Company,” Michael Washinushi, Bird’s interim CEO, was quoted as saying in the statement on Friday. “And while disappointing, this change in our listing status on the NYSE does not alter our commitment to our shareholders, our valued employees across Bird and Spin, our partners and the many global cities and institutions with which we work.”
