OA Goes Full Commercial
Springer Nature's IPO sails forth, demonstrating how far commercial capture of OA has come
After multiple failed attempts, Springer Nature finally has its IPO, with the company’s initial offering getting a nice bump on the Frankfurt exchange Friday, helped along by “elevated stock prices, the start of US interest rate cuts, and economic stimulus in China,” according to one analyst quoted by Bloomberg.
Timing is everything.
Springer Nature’s initial attempt at an IPO in 2018 was met with weak demand, presumably because their prospectus discussed a pivot away from subscription (recurring) revenues, and uncertainty about transactional (OA-related APCs) revenues. Investors were skittish about embracing an unproven revenue model, and uncertain it could persist and scale. Subsequent efforts at an IPO also fizzled for various reasons.
Fast-forward to a Springer Nature with a ravenous mega-journal or two, a friendly OA policy front (especially in the EU), and a generally happy investment marketplace, and this time the IPO went over well enough, even if its 9% high float missed the anticipated range of 11.7-13.5%. Interestingly, Holtzbrinck didn’t put any of its 47% stake’s shares into the IPO.