John Baker would be forgiven for getting spooked days before Halloween in 2022, when his company’s stock bottomed out at $5.08. The value of the Kitchener, Ont.-based online-learning firm, D2L, had plunged 69 per cent from a year earlier, when it debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $16.49 a share amid a wave of Canadian tech IPOs.
It’s a decision many companies that went public in that frothy market came to regret, with several now retreating and going private. But Baker remains convinced that taking D2L public was the right move.
