• Airbnb on Wednesday confidentially filed its paperwork for an initial public offering.
  • Though it could still postpone or cancel the IPO, the move is the biggest indicator yet that it plans to go public this year.
  • The filing was widely anticipated. CEO Brian Chesky told employees last month Airbnb was moving forward with its IPO efforts.
  • The move comes despite the fact that the online travel company’s business was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Its revenue was down 67 percent in the second quarter, as countries around the world shut down their economies and limited the movement of their citizens.

Airbnb just gave its biggest indication yet that it plans to go through with an initial public offering this year, confidentially filing its paperwork for an IPO.

The company, which announced in a statement that it had filed the documents, declined to say when it expected to go through with the offering, how many shares it planned to sell, or what price it expected to offer them at.