Roblox bought the developers of 3D avatars and postponed the IPO until next year
Roblox made two announcements at once. Firstly, it included Loom.ai — a company specializing in the development of three-dimensional avatars. Secondly, Roblox will appear on the stock exchange no earlier than January 2021.
VentureBeat portal reported about the company’s solutions. According to him, Roblox practically did not comment on both of its actions. Both the terms of the transaction between the companies and the motives for postponing the IPO remained undisclosed.
It is assumed that the technology Loom.ai they can bring Roblox closer to creating its own metaverse, where each game is connected to the other. Within such an ecosystem, users should have realistic avatars, VentureBeat pointed out.
“In the future, Roblox players will be able to see their favorite performer singing with real emotions on his face during a virtual concert, as well as communicate with friends in a realistic interactive manner,” the founders said Loom.ai . “The emotions that the Roblox community will be able to express will be limitless.”
Now Loom.ai he is finishing work on one of his projects. The company intends to stop the release of the current product in the first half of 2021. Probably, after that, the developers will fully join Roblox.
Speaking about the IPO, it is worth noting that although Roblox applied for an initial public offering in early October, even then the company stated that not only the decision of the US Securities Commission, but also market conditions, would affect the timing of its entry into the stock exchange. However, investors expected the company’s stock market debut this December.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote, the decision to postpone the IPO could be related to the recent successful placement of shares in Airbnb and DoorDash. Perhaps after that Roblox decided to revise the price of its own securities. At least, it was this fact that Roblox referred to in a memo to its employees.
Nevertheless, Roblox refused to publicly explain its actions.
