Databricks CEO Plans to Avoid IPO During Year of Huge Offerings

Databricks, a data software company, plans to sell shares to the public at some point, but won’t tap the public markets this year amid a flurry of planned tech IPOs.

The company wants to sell shares to the public in order to “create a market transaction mechanism for our employees,” Chief Executive Officer Ali Ghodsi said Thursday during an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We will be a public company. I just think this is a terrible year to go public.”

Databricks, which competes with public firms such as Oracle Corp. and Snowflake Inc., has raised money in a variety ...