Slack just changed its stock ticker weeks before it's expected to go public. Instead of 'SK' Slack wants to be 'WORK'

Stewart Butterfield

Slack updated its direct listing paperwork on Monday with a new ticker symbol.
The company will go public on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker "WORK." It previously filed to list shares under the ticker "SK."
Slack is expected to go public in a direct listing in the upcoming weeks.
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Slack is not a public company yet, but it's already gotten tired of its stock ticker.

In an updated version of its direct listing paperwork filed on Monday, Slack revealed that it has dumped the proposed "SK" stock ticker it had settled upon a few weeks ago. Instead, in a dramatic pivot, the workplace collaboration company will makes its public market debut with the more descriptive ticker symbol "WORK."

Slack is expected to go public through a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming weeks.

It's not clear why Slack swapped stock tickers. Representatives for the company could not immediately be reached for comment.

With this update however, Slack will join a cohort of public enterprise tech companies whose tickers reveal more about the company than just their name. Salesforce trades under the ticker "CRM," which stands for content relationship management. CRM is the type of software Salesforce started out selling, though it has since expanded to other areas.

Another is Atlassian, which trades under the ticker symbol "TEAM." Slack and Atlassian are partners, and Atlassian holds a stake in Slack. Together, they are TEAM WORK.

While Slack may be associated with WORK by the many people who use the office messaging platform to communicate with colleagues, the platform has proven to be useful for social communications as well.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield shares a relationship Slack channel with his girlfriend, Away cofounder Jen Rubio. It was on that Slack channel that Rubio condemned Butterfield's fake Twitter proposal.

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