Smart Glass Manufacturer View Not Confident It Will Survive As Threat Of Delisting Looms
Smart glass company View's future as a going concern has been publicly cast into doubt after once again being unable to file its quarterly earnings.
View, which went public in late 2020 in a $1.6B merger with a Cantor Fitzgerald-sponsored special-purpose acquisition company, never traded for more than its initial $10 per share for any significant stretch of time and saw shares fall to as low as 50 cents last week on the back of a news release indicating it is no longer sure if it can raise more capital.
The company has been on notice with Nasdaq for failing to file its quarterly earnings since the end of last year. In April, Nasdaq gave the company a stay of listing, but View now says that failing to disclose its latest Q1 earnings puts it further at risk of delisting. View has until May 19 to present its case, it said in a press release.
"Although the Company is working diligently to file these periodic reports as soon as possible, there can be no assurance that such reports will be filed before the expiration of the previously granted stay of delisting," the company said in a release.
View, a maker of smart glass for high-end buildings, has slid further and further into the possibility of delisting since it failed to file quarterly reports for the periods ended June 30 and Sept. 30, 2021. A November audit committee investigation also found material errors in past filings, forcing the company to file restatements of its 2019, 2020 and 2021 financials. CEO Rao Mulpuri said in a November 2021 press release that it would hire a chief financial officer to begin a recovery.
"As a fast-growing company with a mission to transform a major industry, develop unique technology and a 'full-stack' of products, and deal with sophisticated manufacturing processes, we have complex issues to manage," Mulpuri said at the time, adding it sometimes felt View was "building the airplane as we fly it."
View has a $201M cash position, but operations cost the company $260M to $270M last year, it said. The company said that it is close to completing its restatements, with no more errors found in its reporting.
View is largely backed by the SoftBank Vision Fund, the source of $1.1B raised in View's 2018 Series H round, according to Crunchbase. But April reporting from Bisnow showed that many proptech companies that went public from SoftBank funding have lost value, with several fighting for survival.
More recently, SoftBank indicated it would walk back its former strategy of lavish spending and growth at all costs, implementing stricter investment criteria that would lessen its exposure to loss-taking companies in its portfolio.
