Intel’s Mobileye IPO Looks Desperate and Needy
Going public in the middle of a market meltdown, at a deep discount to recent valuations, sends bad signals to investors.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is testing the market at a tumultuous time.
Photographer: Eric Lalmand/Pool/AFP
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has lost a third of its value, public-offering volume has plummeted over 90%, and the majority of last year’s IPO crop is underwater. All the signs are there for any right-minded chief executive to hold off on a share sale. Yet Intel Corp. is bringing Mobileye Global Inc. to market, making CEO Pat Gelsinger look desperate.
Five years after buying and delisting the company for $15.3 billion, Intel is putting it up for sale again with a price tag of $16 billion. That’s an embarrassing discount to the $50 billion value that had once been floated, and little more than half the $30 billion that was being discussed just a month ago.