• by Chuck Martin , July 6, 2018

Sonos, the smart speaker maker, filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange today.

“We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include sales and marketing activities, research, product development, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures,” Sonos states in its filing.  “We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, complementary businesses, products, services, technologies or assets.

The filing also states that Sonos has no current agreements for any acquisitions or investments. For its fiscal year ending in September 2017, Sonos lost $14 million and for the six months ending in March 2018, it made $13 million.

The speaker maker intends to introduce products at an increased pace compared to the previous three years. “Executing on our roadmap will position us to acquire new customers, offer a continuously improving experience to our existing customers and grow follow-on purchases,” states the filing.  “Our most recent steps in this direction occurred in October, with the introduction of our first voice-enabled wireless speaker, Sonos One, and in July 2018, with the introduction of our first voice-enabled home theater speaker, Sonos Beam.”

In the smart speaker race, Sonos is competing with Amazon, Google and Apple. Sonos says its customers have registered 19 million products in 7 million households and its products are sold in more than 50 countries, with 55% of its revenue coming from outside the U.S.

The company says it intends to invest significant resources in its market and brand development efforts. The Sonos wireless speaker platform is open to all other voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa.

“An amazing 60 percent of our customers are repeat buyers, adding to their Sonos system as their lives grow,” Sonos CEO Patrick Spence states in the IPO filing.  “It means that a single Sonos product in a home can, over time, become a hub in a network of Sonos products, and often does.”