Slack is prepping for IPO in early 2019, says report

The workplace chat service has reportedly been valued at $5.1 billion.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter

Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.

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Marrian Zhou

Sept. 28, 2018 9:03 a.m. PT

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.
Tobias Hase/dpa/Corbis

Slack may be going public.

The company is currently preparing for an initial public offering in early 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal, with the aim of going public as early as the first quarter of the year.

The workplace chat service has become popular among startups and tech-focused media companies. Slack courts its free users to upgrade to the paid service. Microsoft made a similar move in July by offering its Teams business-chat app for free to up to 300 people.

Slack has more than 8 million daily active users and 3 million paid users, according to the Journal. The company has reportedly raised more than $1 billion since 2013 and was valued at $5.1 billion in 2017.

Slack declined to comment.