Breaking: Etsy files for IPO

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Online crafts marketplace Etsy filed paperwork with the SEC today indicating that it intends to become a public company via an IPO worth at least $100 million. The IPO has been expected for months by financial industry analysts.

New York-based Etsy was founded in 2005. Although originally founded as a marketplace for handmade crafts, the company caused an uproar among its users in 2013 when it changed its terms of use to allow the sale of manufactured goods. Many storeowners threatened to leave the service but with Etsy being the dominating presence in the market, most eventually stayed on the service. The shift in mission does not seem to have harmed the company, which has been reporting increasing revenue and decreasing losses in the period since.

Etsy stock will be traded on the NASDAQ exchange, which also hosted the recent Michaels IPO. The company's ticker symbol will by "ETSY". Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are managing the offering. No offering date, price or volume of shares to be offered has been determined yet.

A portion of the Etsy IPO is being reserved for individual investors to purchase in small volumes. For more information, visit Morgan Stanley's Etsy IPO Participation information page.