Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Mattress Producer Purple Set to Go Public; Projects 2018 Revenue of $425M
November 7,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Economic News, Industry 
Mattress producer Purple Innovation, a rapidly-growing start-up that sells its products online, has signed a definitive merger agreement that will make it a public company.
The company and its merger partner, Global Partner Acquisition Corp., said the transaction will give publicly-traded Purple an initial enterprise value of $894 million, more than twice its projected 2018 revenues of $425 million.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing GPAC, Purple Innovation’s revenues grew from $4.31 million in 2014 to $65.5 million in 2016.
And for the first half of 2017, revenues were $77.8 million, compared with $20.7 million in the first half of 2016.
Purple had a profit of $769,000 in 2014, but recorded net losses of $340,000 and $1.88 million in 2015 and 2016, respectively. However, the company showed a profit of $1.65 million for the first half of 2017, according to the filing.
The merger must be approved by GPAC shareholders at a special stockholders meeting, but no date was given for the meeting.
The merger is a complex transaction that allows Purple to become a public company without an initial public offering (IPO). GPAC is a publicly-traded shell company that was formed with the intention of buying a start-up company.
Purple is one of many “bed-in-a-box” producers that have shaken the mattress industry in recent years by taking market share away from traditional producers, but it would be the first to go public.
Other major players in this segment include Casper, Tuft & Needle, Leesa, and Saatva.