It's pretty common to submit a confidential draft. This started with the JOBS Act [1], which loosened disclosure requirements generally for "Emerging Growth Com

It's pretty common to submit a confidential draft. This started with the JOBS Act [1], which loosened disclosure requirements generally for "Emerging Growth Companies" [2] when they are going public and introduced the notion of a confidential draft registration statement. You originally had to meet certain requirements to qualify for confidential filing, but that privilege was subsequently expanded to all companies [3]. Exactly how common it is to announce your confidential filing is harder to assess, but it's not _that_ unusual. They likely decided their filing would leak and thus it was better to get ahead of it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startup... [2] https://www.sec.gov/smallbusiness/goingpublic/EGC https://www.sec.gov/smallbusiness/goingpublic/EGC [3] https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2017/07/sec-permit-issuers-submit-confidential https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2017/07/sec-pe...