Led by Indian American CEO Anjali Sud, Video Hosting Platform Vimeo Goes Public in Spinoff from IAC

File photo of Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud on stage during the 2019 NYWIFT Muse Awards at the New York Hilton Midtown on Dec. 10, 2019 in New York City. (Lars Niki/Getty Images for New York Women in Film & Television)

By GIOVANNI ALBANESE Jr./India-West Staff Reporter

Led by Indian American chief executive officer Anjali Sud, video hosting platform Vimeo went public May 25, appearing on the NASDAQ, via a spinoff from IAC/InterActiveCorp.

In a blog featured on www.Vimeo.com, Sud expressed that “dreams do come true,” in announcing the company going public.

“This has been a 16-year labor of love: sparked by a few inspired minds, nurtured by patient investors, and kindled by over a thousand passionate humans who have built, pivoted, innovated, and scaled,” Sud wrote in the blog.

“We’ve gone through a lot of change over the years. But what has never changed is our belief in the power of video. We put creators first, and put the power of professional-quality video in the hands of millions. We built an innovative software platform, a wildly creative community, and a strong and resilient business,” she continued.

“I don’t think I’ll ever feel more proud of a group of people as I do today,” Sud said.

On the first day of trading, however, the YouTube rival Vimeo saw its stock drop 12.85 percent. Vimeo stock began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “VMEO.” It closed at $45.39 per share, down from its price of $52.08 on May 24. That gives it a current market capitalization of about $8.5 billion, Variety reported.

This January, Vimeo said it raised $300 million in new equity funding, giving it a pre-money valuation of $5.7 billion, double what it was three months earlier, the Variety report noted.

As a result of the spinoff, IAC’s interest in Vimeo is now held directly by IAC shareholders. As previously announced, IAC shareholders received 1.6235 shares of VMEO stock for each IAC share held as of the close of business on May 24, the report said.

Vimeo is the 11th public company to be spun off from IAC, joining the ranks of companies including Match Group, Expedia, LendingTree, HSN (now part of Qurate) and Ticketmaster (now part of Live Nation Entertainment), it said.

“As we look ahead, there is so much more to do. Spurred by a global pandemic, video has become an essential medium for staying connected, productive, and informed—an essential medium for businesses to thrive. Yet there is so much more to imagine and build,” Sud wrote in the blog.

“Video can usher in a better, more evolved way of working. Video can unlock whole new business models and revenue streams. Video can move every business forward, regardless of their budget or expertise,” the Vimeo CEO stressed.

“Everywhere we look we see opportunity—from transforming our platform into a teams-first experience, to reimagining the future of virtual events, to enabling anyone to create beautiful video content daily. So we will keep innovating, with urgency. We won’t stop until we bring the power of video to all,” she said.

“On behalf of our 850 team members today, working from home setups and laptops around the globe, it is our privilege to take Vimeo into the future. Our labor of love continues,” Sud concluded in the blog.

Vimeo provides a suite of video tools for businesses and independent creators. It has more than 200 million users and as of the end of March had 1.6 million paying subscribers, up 25 percent year over year, the Variety report said.

For the first quarter of 2021, Vimeo reported $89.4 million (up 57 percent from the year prior) and net income of $3.3 million (compared with a net loss of $20.3 million in Q1 2020). The New York-based company held $316 million in cash and equivalents and no debt as of March 31, the report added.

In reporting results May 5, Vimeo told investors that it will increase its investments in 2021 and that it doesn’t expect to be profitable for the full year on an adjusted EBITDA basis.

The company said it expects year-over-year revenue growth of around 40 percent in the second quarter, decelerating to 30 percent growth through the end of 2021, before accelerating in 2022 “as the investments from this year start to show results,” said CFO Narayan Menon, according to Variety’s reporting.

In April, Vimeo announced that the 11 members of its board of directors would include filmmakers Spike Lee and George C. Wolfe alongside Sud and IAC CEO Joey Levin (chairman of Vimeo).

Vimeo became part of IAC in 2006 through IAC’s $26 million acquisition of Connected Ventures, a collection of businesses whose main attraction was College Humor.

Sud was born in an Indian American family residing in Detroit, Michigan in 1983. In 1997, she left Flint to study at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. She completed her bachelor’s in finance and management from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2005, followed by an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 2011.

Between 2005 and 2014 she worked in roles of finance, media and e-commerce at Sagent Advisors, Amazon and Time Warner, before shifting to Vimeo in 2014.