The Briefing: Blizzard of Deals, Despite a Choppy Market

Deal activity is as intense as ever, despite some volatility in the market. Today we got the details of WeWork’s planned SPAC merger, which will bring the co-working firm to the public market 18 months after its aborted IPO. Used-clothing e-commerce site ThredUp went public with a big pop. We also learned that news outlets Axios and The Athletic are in talks to merge and then go public via a SPAC merger. And in the private tech sphere, Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy Discord.

At the same time, though, the air seems to be going out of the market, just a little. Even after today’s rally, the Nasdaq is off nearly 7% in the past six weeks. Some newly public tech companies have been hit. Poshmark, a ThredUp competitor that went public in mid-January, is now trading 61% below its opening day level and even below its IPO price. Affirm, the online lender that went public about the same time, is trading around half its mid-February high, although it is still handily above its IPO price. Stocks of TV maker Vizio and health insurance firm Oscar Health both fell below their IPO price as trading opened.