Top 10 Utah Biz Stories of Q2 2021
Here’s our breakdown of the top ten business stories in the “State of Deseret” during the second quarter of 2021.
It’s now time to take a few minutes to look back over the second quarter of 2021 to identify and rank Utah’s Top 10 Business Stories of the Second Quarter of 2021. Enjoy.
Utah’s No. 10 Business Story of Q2 2021: The Utah Jazz Finish in 1st Place, Exit the NBA Playoffs in the 2nd Round, then Replace its Head of Basketball Operations
It was hard to NOT see the building fervor for the Utah Jazz and the pending NBA playoffs throughout the State of Deseret leading up to the end of the regular season in the Association,
The team’s push led to a league-leading 52—20 record for the Jazz, one game ahead of the Phoenix Suns.
Unfortunately, nagging injuries to two of the team’s three 2020/2021 All-Star Players — Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley — led to a disappointing second round exit from the playoffs, along with questions of “What might have been” in this Covid-shortened season.
Then mere days after they were bounced out of the post-season by the Los Angeles Clippers, the Jazz announced the departure of Dennis Lindsey as the team’s EVP of Basketball Operations, with General Manager, Justin Zanik, now taking over day-to-day operations of the franchise under the strong leadership of owner, Ryan Smith.
For these reasons and others, the Utah Jazz come in as the 10th most important business “story” in Utah during the 2nd quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 9 Business Story of Q2 2021: Four Major Shareholders Sell over $250 Million in Purple Stock
As noted in the May 21 edition of Deseret Business Watch, public offerings (aka, stock sales) tend to be good news for companies with shares listed on Wall Street.
But when Lehi, Utah-based Purple Innovations announced that four major shareholders planned to sell off 7.3 million shares of Purple stock (NasdaqGS:PRPL) at $30.56 per share for approximately $250 million in proceeds, the stock market didn’t react all that favorably — at least at first.
Then the stock bounced back. Initially.
But as of the close of trading yesterday, Purple stock was priced at $27.12, a drop of over 10% since the secondary offering.
Collectively, this is why the Purple stock sale was the 9th most important business story in Utah during the second quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 8 Business Story of Q2 2021: Recursion Goes Public, Raises $500 Million, and is Now Valued at $6.4 Billion
Three months ago, the fact that Salt Lake City-based Recursion Pharmaceuticals had announced plans to “go public” led to a Number 9 placement on the early April edition of Deseret Business Watch titled “Top 11 Utah Biz Stories of Q1 2021.”
Well … ICYMI … Recursion completed its Initial Public Offering in mid-April (as reported here), raising $500 million in the process.
Interestingly, Recursion stock (NasdaqGS:RXRX) finished trading yesterday priced at $37.96/share, more than twice its offering price for the IPO, giving Recursion a current valuation of nearly $6.4 billion.
For this and other reasons, Recursion Pharmaceuticals ranks as the 8th most important Utah business story for the 2nd quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 7 Business Story of Q2 2021: Lucid Raises $500 Million and Hits Triple Unicorn Status
In late June news blew-out of South Jordan, Utah that online design tools provider, Lucid, had raised $500 million in a “secondary investment.”
This funding valued Lucid at $3 billion, aka, Triple Unicorn status.
This new financing came just 14 months after Lucid announced a $52 million Series D round of funding, a funding that gave it a valuation of $1 billion (aka, single Unicorn status).
This fact was even more impressive given that Lucid had sold off its Lucidpress business line to Charles Thane Capital just weeks earlier in late May.
So … for these reasons, Lucid’s $500 million funding and attendant Triple Unicorn status rank as the 7th most important business story in the State of Deseret for the second quarter of 2021.
P.S. I’m pretty sure Lucid’s $500MM financing round is the largest funding of a private company in Utah. Ever.
Utah’s No. 6 Business Story of Q2 2021: Micron Announces $900 Million Sale of its Semiconductor Plant in Lehi
It didn’t take long, like roughly 100 days, but Micron Technologies announced in late June that Texas Instruments is buying Micron’s semiconductor plant in Lehi for $900 million.
It’s anticipated the sale will close by the end of the year, and Micron expects to pull in an additional $600 million selling-off other equipment in its Lehi location separate from the sale of its “fab.”
Additionally, TI plans to
“… offer all Lehi site team members the opportunity to become employees upon the closing of the sale.”
For these reasons, the sale of the Micron Technologies plant in Lehi ranks as the 6th most important story in the 2nd quarter of 2021 within Utah’s business community.
P.S. Micron’s plans to sell its Lehi fab ranked as the No. 4 most important business story in Utah for the first quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 5 Business Story of Q2 2021: Gunther Family and Shareholders Win as Altabancorp Proxy Battle Ends with Buyout by Glacier Bancorp
I know I can sometimes come off as being a bit cocky, but boy it’s nice to be proven right.
Back in late January, Deseret Business Watch first reported in A Battle for the Soul of Altabancorp about an emerging fight between the leadership of the bank with its largest group of shareholders — the Gunther Family Trust.
It was DBW’s first in-depth Feature Story.
But with the Gunther family’s more than 31% ownership of the outstanding shares of Altabancorp (NasdaqGS:ALTA), I was shocked that the Board and bank executives were not, apparently, willing to have private conversations with this voting bloc of shareholders.
Given the pissy-ness of the bank’s initial news release in response to the Gunther Family Trust’s filing of its Form 13D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (and subsequent bank press releases as well), I was convinced that things were headed down a path toward an uncertain future for the bank.
In fact, I concluded that January 28th issue of DBW this way:
“But the way things are going, Utah’s Altabancorp may not exist as a standalone company by the end of 2021, if not sooner.”
So when Altabancorp announced in mid-May that it was being bought for $930 million by Glacier Bancorp I was not surprised.
Disappointed that no other Utah publisher picked up the story prior to the acquisition announcement? Yes. But disappointed about the acquisition? Nah.
Hence, the end of the Altabancorp/Gunther Family Trust saga ranks as the State of Deseret’s 5th most important business story for the second quarter of 2021.
P.S. The Altabancorp/Gunther Family Trust “proxy fight” was also ranked as the No. 5 most important Utah biz story in the first quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 4 Business Story of Q2 2021: LHM Real Estate Buys Daybreak
A disclosure for transparency’s sake: I live in the Daybreak community in South Jordan, Utah. And my wife and I like it here. A lot.
So when Larry H. Miller Real Estate announced in mid-April that it had purchased Daybreak, it was clearly big news.
Beyond news of the acquisition itself, however, very little else was disclosed by either party, like the acquisition price.
My back-of-the-napkin estimate puts the purchase price at north of $1 billion for LHM Real Estate. But do I know? Nope.
Regardless, the Daybreak sale comes in as the 4th most important business news item in Utah for the 2nd quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 3 Business Story of Q2 2021: Divvy Acquired for $2.5 Billion by Bill.com
Much as Lucid’s new Triple Unicorn status was an eyeopener, so was the news in early May that Lehi-based Divvy was getting bought for $2.5 billion in cash and stock.
The mid-January inaugural edition of Deseret Business Watch reported on Divvy’s $165 million Series D round of funding, a financing that gave the company a valuation of $1.6 billion.
Yup, that’s a $900 million boost to Divvy’s market capitalization — In. Four. Months.
Craziness!!!
So yeah, Divvy’s buyout ranks as the 3rd most important business story in Utah for the second quarter of the year.
Utah’s No. 2 Business Story of Q2 2021: Pluralsight Acquired for $3.8 Billion by Vista Equity Partners
In early April, the previously announced $3.8 billion acquisition of Draper, Utah-based Pluralsight by Vista Equity Partners was completed.
As a result, NASDAQ-listed shares in Pluralsight stopped trading and the company became a privately held firm owned by Vista.
This transaction ranks as the 2nd most important business story in the State of Deseret for the 2nd quarter of 2021.
Utah’s No. 1 Business Story of Q2 2021: AT LEAST $9.2 Billion in Transactions in the Second Quarter of 2021 (via Acquisitions, Mergers, Purchases, and an IPO)
Nine-point-two billion dollars. That’s how much money Utah businesses received, raised, and/or spent during April, May and June of this year via at least 40 acquisitions, mergers, and purchases, as well as a separate initial public offering (IPO).
Please note that that $9.2 billion amount does NOT include the monies spent by LHM Real Estate to purchase Daybreak (see above), although I suspect that purchase price was at least $1 billion.
Of the 40 transactions reported during the quarter by DBW, however,
10 were for monies raised (via an outside investor or an IPO);
14 were for Utah companies that were acquired; and
15 were driven by Utah companies acquiring another firm.
Additionally, the totals above do NOT include an additional $323 million in total dollars raised by three separate Utah-based VCs / investment funds
RET Ventures ($173MM),
Savory Fund … aka, Mercato Partners, ($100MM), and
Altitude Lab ($50MM),
respectively.
Were this pace to continue, Utah’s business community would smash the prior record of over $28 billion in transactions set just last year.
In my mind there is no question …
Business in the State of Deseret is ON FIRE!
Can it continue, long-term? Probably not.
But it’s clear to this observer that the trajectory of business in Utah has changed, and it has probably changed forever.
Investors are willing to invest here (where they were not willing to do so 2—3 decades ago).
Entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors are also willing to
Start companies in Utah,
Open offices in Utah, or
Relocate their organizations to Utah.
Individual efforts notwithstanding, this is not the work of any one person or any single organization, but rather a cultural thing that has emerged over time.
Simply put: Utahns get stuff done. And we’re pretty dang creative about how we do this. And we’re showing the world that this is the case.
So … to all who contributed to making this 2nd Quarter of 2021 an amazing three-month-period for Utah’s business community — BRAVO!
ICYMI: If you haven’t read last Friday’s Week-in-Review report from Deseret Business Watch — Micron & Vivint Announce Mega Deals, and More (Week-in-Review Highlights, June 26—July 2, 2021) — I hope you’ll do so now.
This particular issue looks at nine separate news stories from the business community of Utah, and I think you’ll find the entire edition of DBW worth your time. Thanks.
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Hashtags this week: #deseret #business #watch #deseretbusinesswatch #utah #siliconslopes #secondquarter #top10 #topten #top10stories #toptenstories #utahjazz #ipo #goingpublic #initialpublicoffering #secondaryoffering #raisingmoney #pharmaceuticals #biotech #biotechnology #recursion #saltlakecity #slc
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About the Author
David Politis is a Marketing Mercenary, which is a fancy way of saying that organizations and individuals hire him to solve their marketing problems. To learn more, please feel free to visit David’s LinkedIn Profile or the website for his business: The David Politis Company. If you have a story idea for him (or would just like to connect), you can reach him at me@davidpolitis.com.
Nice recap.
Thanks, Brad. Always great to hear from you.