Roblox Corporation

Roblox Corporation is an American video-game developer located in San Mateo, California. It is the company that develops Roblox. It was founded on March 23, 2004, by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, and incorporated on April 9, 2004. As of June 30, 2021, the company has 1,234 employees.

Direct listing
After filing with the SEC for an initial public offering in November 2020, Roblox Corporation decided to instead become public through a direct listing. On March 10, 2021, Roblox Corporation started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RBLX. After the first day of trading, the company's stock closed with a fully diluted valuation of $45.2 billion and a market capitalization of $38.2 billion.

Acquisitions
On October 12, 2018, the company acquired PacketZoom, a developer of optimization software for mobile networks, for an undisclosed amount. Its employees, including founder and chief technology officer Cheten Ahuja was merged into Roblox Coporation.

In December 2020, Roblox Corporation acquired Imbellus, a company that focuses on how people think with cognitive assessments, for an undisclosed amount. Later that month, Roblox Corporation acquired Loom.ai, a company that creates 3D avatars from photographs, for an undisclosed amount.

In August 2021, the company acquired the online communication platforms Bash Video and Guilded, paying $90 million for cash and stock for the latter.

On September 20, 2021, Roblox Corporation acquired Sway, an app focused on motion effects and AI filters. With the acquisition, the Sway app shutdown on September 24, 2021.

Legal disputes
In June 2016, Cinemark Theatres filed a lawsuit against the company for trademark infringement. The plaintiff cited that several games within Roblox recreated Cinemark locations, including the trademarked branding.

In February 2018, YouTuber Kerstin Hoffmann, (known as Keisyo), accused Roblox Corporation of owing her $150,000 because the company had stop her from converting her 42 million Robux balance into real life money for no given reason. In response, the company stated that she could not transfer her Robux because she earned it from "fraudulent activities".

In May 2021, an unnamed litigant filed a class-action lawsuit against Roblox Corporation. The company was accused of ripping off players of bogus purchases. Stating that "The company's decision to sell first and 'moderate' later has obvious monetary benefit for Roblox, by the time defendant has deleted items from the Avatar Shop and users' inventories, it has already taken its 30% commission from the sale." In response, Roblox Corporation stated that they will review all content submitted by using a multi-step review process before it appears on the platform.

In June 2021, the National Music Publishers' Association filed a lawsuit against Roblox Corporation for $200 million, accusing it of infringing copyright laws. The complaint stated that, "Roblox actively preys on its impressionable user base and their desire for popular music, teaching children that pirating music is perfectly acceptable." In response to the lawsuit, the company contended that they "do not tolerate copyright infringement", an expressed an intent to contest the lawsuit. On September 27, 2021, the National Music Publishers' Association stated that any previous claims against the company were dropped and sets the foundation for future partnerships with global publishers on the platform.

In November 2021, Roblox Corporation filed a $1.65 million lawsuit against YouTuber Ruben Sim. The complaint states, "posting false and misleading terroist threats", breach of contract and "cyber-bullying and harassing Roblox employees and executives" during the 2021 Roblox Developer Conference which led to it being temporarily shutdown. On January 16, 2022, Ben Simon and Roblox announced that they had settled their case outside of court. Under the agreement, Ben is restricted from making false terrorist threats against Roblox, making false statements about Roblox, encouraging violence against Roblox or its employees, accessing the Roblox website other than sections that do not require an account to access, violating the Roblox Terms of Service, staying 100 feet away from any Roblox offices, facility or residence, to remove any content that violated the agreed-upon terms by January 20, 2022, and ordered him to pay $150,000 in settlement amount of money.

Trivia

 * A place based on the Roblox headquarters by named Roblox World Headquarters was created in 2006. He also created an updated version, named Roblox HQ 2.0, in 2008.
 * Roblox Corporation was represented in the Building the Open Metaverse session at SIGGRAPH 2021 by Morgan McGuire, Chief Scientist at Roblox. He spoke in the "Big Questions and Opportunities" section, about communication and social experiences in the Metaverse.