Pedestrians walk by an advertisement for Klarna.
Daniel Harvey Gonzalez | In Pictures via Getty Images
Klarna and StubHub are delaying plans to go public after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement sent shockwaves through U.S. markets.
The companies put their long-awaited debuts on pause because of market turbulence, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential. Neither company has a timeline for when it will pursue an offering, the person said.
Goldman Sachs, which is leading the Klarna IPO, declined to comment. Representatives from StubHub didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both companies had filed their IPO prospectuses in recent weeks.
Klarna, a Swedish provider of buy now, pay later loans, had planned to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR. Online ticket marketplace StubHub was set for an IPO on the NYSE under the ticker STUB, and was preparing to start its roadshow on Monday, a person familiar said.
Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order imposing a far-reaching reciprocal tariff plan. The announcement triggered a market selloff that’s continued to worsen. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 4%, while the S&P 500 slid 4.5%. The Nasdaq, which logged its worst session since 2020 on Thursday, slid 4.5% in afternoon trading, and is headed for its worst week since the early days of the Covid pandemic.
The announcements are a major blow for venture capital firms, who were counting on a reinvigorated IPO market in the Trump administration after a miserable last few years for big exits.
CoreWeave, an artificial intelligence infrastructure company, debuted last week and became the first venture-backed tech company in the U.S. to raise at least $1 billion in an IPO since 2021. However, CoreWeave slashed its IPO price ahead of the offering and then had a rough first two days on the market. Trading since has been extremely volatile, with the stock down 13% on Friday, leaving it 18% above its IPO price.
Digital physical therapy startup Hinge Health has also filed to go public. The jump in IPO prospectuses lifted optimism on Wall Street that the floodgates would open for emerging tech companies. But that was before Trump’s announcement of expansive tariffs.
Klarna cited the potential of tariffs as a risk factor in its prospectus. The company wrote, “A downturn in the general economic environment or a slower pace of economic growth, including as a result of changes in international trade policies, multilateral trade agreements or imposition of new tariffs, taxes and other restrictions on global trade, or changes to immigration policies or migration patterns, can lead to decreased consumer spending and adversely affect the financial condition of our merchants.”
Hinge Health has been expecting to launch its IPO roadshow at the end of the month, a source familiar said. The company said in its filing that, tariffs are one factor that “could limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our results of operations.”
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