In other words, the bet made by Silver Lake and Sixth Street has paid off handsomely.
That's based on the more than 5 million shares of the company that Silver Lake owns, either directly or through warrants that give it the right, but not the obligation, to buy stock, according to the prospectus. The warrants are worth $466.7 million, once the cost of exercising them is taken into account. And Airbnb turned the investment of more than $27 million in Johnson's shares, as well as 125,000 other shares, into almost $155 million.
Nathan Blecharczyk, one of Airbnb's founders, said the decision to raise money at that point in time was critical, as was the company's decision to do it mostly in the form of debt rather than equity that would have diluted existing shareholders.