By Breakingviews
A direct listing is "just an IPO without the O," says Barry McCarthy, finance chief of music streaming outfit Spotify Technology ([[SPOT]]). McCarthy's company, worth $26 billion in early December, used the non-standard method to go public in 2018, and $12 billion workplace messaging service Slack Technologies ([[WORK]]) followed in 2019. Investors can expect more. Direct listings could start borrowing features from initial public offerings, and the whole notion may jump across the Atlantic.
McCarthy suggested in a panel discussion hosted by investment bank Goldman Sachs in October that the traditional way of