Work collaboration tool Slack announces it is ready to go public

Work collaboration tool Slack has announced it is ready to go public without disclosing much details of its listing plans, making it one of the first major Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of 2019.

Slack, the messaging and chat application for businesses, appears to be setting itself up for the $3.5 trillion health-care market, CNBC reported late on Monday.

The company, which confidentially filed to go public, has also updated its security page to note that it is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant, thus, suggesting that it is working toward a use case where health-care providers can begin using it to share sensitive patient health information.

The firm indicated via Twitter that only the enterprise version of the product which is Slack Enterprise Grid is HIPAA compliant without commenting further.

Slack has "submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1" to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with the public listing due to take place after the SEC completes its review process.

A direct listing means Slack will forego the support of traditional underwriters and will give insiders the option to sell instantly.

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That often results in volatility in the company's early trading days, according to Fortune.

Founded in 2009, Slack is essentially a collaboration hub for work. It emerged from the ruins of a failed game company called Tiny Speck which shut down in 2012.