In a direct listing, unlike an IPO, banks do not underwrite the offering, and no new shares are sold, so the company does not receive any additional money for operations. It's simply a way for existing shareholders to get liquidity by registering their shares for sale on the public market. Plus, Slack doesn't need to raise more money since it already has more than $800 million in cash on hand.
While banks typically help determine pricing in an IPO, the NYSE set the reference price for Slack of $26 Wednesday night. The opening price for Slack's Class A common stock was determined by the buy and sell orders collected by the NYSE from broker-dealers, according to Slack'sLike many tech companies, Slack debuted with a dual-class structure, with Class B shares holding 10 votes per share to consolidate voting power among its top shareholders. According to Slack's prospectus, Accel is the company's largest shareholder at 24%, followed by Andreessen Horowitz with a 13.