It's what reporters like to see. Finally, a chance to peek under the hood of the buzziest unicorns to see their revenue, growth rates and largest shareholder stakes. And while most of those companies lose money, an IPO filing provides a glimpse of gross margins and a sense of when a company might reach profitability. All this is to say that the mere possibility of a public offering ' as was teased for Anthropic in a Financial Times article late Tuesday ' is an exciting development for those of us lamenting the paucity of unicorn IPOs in recent months. Of course, no company goes public just to satiate the curiosity of that negligible portion of the population that lives for S-1 filings. The primary reasons are far more pragmatic: To raise money, benefit from a higher profile and potential valuation boost that comes with a public listing, and offer a path to liquidity for founders, employees and early investors. The draws are big enough that it behooves the most high-profile private...
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