The former first stock of "global autonomous driving" has now become the delisting first stock of "global autonomous driving".
On January 17th local time, autonomous truck giant Tucson Future announced its decision to voluntarily delist its common stock from NASDAQ and terminate its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Tucson is expected to deregister with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 29th, with its last trading day expected to be around February 7th.
On the day of the news release, its stock price plummeted by over 46%. As of January 17, 2024, it closed at $0.38 per share, a 99% drop from its peak stock price of $62.58 per share, and its market value evaporated by over $11.9 billion. Some netizens joked that the first person to "eat crabs" couldn't laugh until the end and felt a bit awkward.
Tucson Future stated that delisting is a decision made by the board of directors and is the best option for shareholders. Since Tucson's future IPO in 2021, the capital market has undergone significant changes, with interest rates rising and quantitative tightening. At the same time, Tucson's future valuation and liquidity will decrease, and stock price volatility will significantly increase.
Therefore, the board of directors believes that the benefits of continuing to go public are no longer present. Tucson is undergoing a transformation in the future, and the company believes that as a non listed company, it can better undergo transformation than as a listed company.
The poster news reporter learned that the decision to delist this time was not sudden. As early as a year ago, NASDAQ issued a delisting warning to Tucson Future, during which Tucson Future continuously took various measures to "cut off its arm and survive". However, now that the delisting has been firmly established.
Tucson Future, founded in 2015, took less than three years from listing to delisting. Since the fourth quarter of 2022, Tucson Future has announced multiple restructuring plans to improve its cost structure, including layoffs and asset impairment, in order to improve its financial situation.
In May and December 2023, Tucson Future conducted two rounds of layoffs, and after the layoffs, Tucson Future's global full-time employees will be approximately 700. Tucson Future stated that the remaining employees will be responsible for reducing the company's operations in the United States, including selling US assets and assisting the company in strategic transfers to the Asia Pacific region.
In June 2023, Tucson Future obtained the first batch of unmanned intelligent connected vehicle road test licenses in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and completed the first fully unmanned test of autonomous driving heavy-duty trucks on public roads.