Tech Wearable FitBit to debut June 18

Yet another high profile IPO has set terms for its IPO.

Fitbit (NYSE: FIT), a platform that combines connected health and fitness devices with software and services, seeks to raise up to $477.6 million with a high end pricing ($16.00).  A total of $358 million will go to the company with the rest being sold by private stakeholders.

The brand is well known across America with nearly 21 million devices having been sold as of March 31, 2015.  But the brand is now also synonymous with being a competitor to the Apple Watch which debuted in April. Is FitBit cashing out before Apple truly hits the retail market?

TheStreet.Com writes that the Smartwatch sector may cannibalize itself.

“Fitbit took it to new level by socialization and seeing steps, but there’s nothing new though,” Mio Global CEO, Liz Dickinson, told TheStreet. “The smart watch market is super new and exciting and it will cannibalize the pedometer. The fitness tracker market is in a precarious position and will be cannibalized.”

On the other hand, FitBit is a consumer-electronic product which some like to draw comparisons to one of the most lucrative IPOs of 2014, GoPro (Nasdaq: GPRO). And one article makes the case that analysts are doubting FitBit in the same way they doubted GoPro.

So what do the numbers say? They show a sign of strength and growth.

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Revenues have increased from $271m to $745m, or roughly 175%, in the year ended December 2013 versus December 2014, respectively.  Additionally, the company had a net loss of $51m in 2013 compared to a net gain of $131m in 2014.

Wall Street would certainly like those numbers.

“Although FitBit has viable competition, the year-to-date top line numbers and highly improving bottom line figures make for a quintessential case for a hyper growth story,” Scott Sweet, managing partner at IPOBoutique.Com. “We are looking forward to see how retail and institutional accounts embrace this IPO.”

There is also a strong underwriting team on the deal with Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities and BofA Merrill Lynch leading the deal.

It should be noted that there is litigation surround this company as another rival, Jawbone, has filed a lawsuit claiming FitBit stole workers away thus stealing information. The timing of the lawsuit is certainly ‘pin-point timed’.

Will investors be running toward or away from FitBit?

We will soon find out when FitBit runs to their finish line on June 18th.