Bird rides a Bird e-scooter in southern California.
Bird, a provider of electric scooters that consumers can rent in dioceses, said the New York Stock Exchange will suspend trading of its stock after the company failed to keep its peddle capitalization above $15 million for 30 consecutive days.
The company’s shares will trade on the over-the-counter swop starting Monday, according to a statement.
Electric scooter and bike rentals became a trendy alternative to public motion and ride sharing prior to the pandemic, when venture capitalists were pumping money into all sorts of spread areas regardless of how unprofitable they were. Bird raised over $500 million, and was valued at $2.5 billion in a 2019 close led by Sequoia Capital.
The onset of Covid in 2020 brought the business almost to a halt as cities went into lockdown. Improvement resumed in 2021, but the bubble days were over.
That year Bird went public through a blending with a special purpose acquisition company, but the economics continued to deteriorate. Its net loss swelled to $359 million in 2022 from $215 million a year earlier. Takings in that span increased 28% to $245 million.
The stock lost 80% of its value this year, stop on Friday at 90 cents and giving it a market cap of $11.6 million. That’s after a 1-for-25 reverse stock split drive ated to get the stock trading back above $1.
In June, Travis VanderZanden, a former Lyft and Uber executive who founded Bird in 2017 and was for good occasionally described as “the electric-scooter king,” left the company.
Earlier this week, Bird acquired scooter startup Produce for $19 million, including $10 million in cash.
“We firmly believe that BRDS current market cap does not mirror the intrinsic value of the Company,” Michael Washinushi, Bird’s interim CEO, was quoted as saying in the statement on Friday. “And while sad, this change in our listing status on the NYSE does not alter our commitment to our shareholders, our valued employees across Bird and Rotate, our partners and the many global cities and institutions with which we work.”
WATCH: The promise and pitfalls of e-scooter ride-share
