2019: A rocky year for IPOs

After years of the initial public offering (IPO) market welcoming the stock market debuts of technology unicorns and other start-ups at ever more frothy valuations, 2019 was the year that IPO investors pushed back, leading to pulled listings and poor stock performance. Geopolitical tensions, such as the trade war between the United States and China and Hong Kong�s pro-democracy protests, also made listings more challenging for IPO hopefuls by fueling stock market volatility. Reuters scored significant news breaks and in-depth revelatory stories in this defining year for IPOs, from ride-hailing start-ups Uber and Lyft to office-sharing space provider WeWork and temporary-lodging giant Airbnb.