Lyft Sets $23 Billion Value as High-End Goal for I.P.O.
Lyft Sets $23 Billion Value as High-End Goal for I.P.O.
SAN FRANCISCO — Lyft officially signaled on Monday that it sought to have the biggest technology initial public offering since 2014, setting the stage for a bonanza of riches for young tech companies this year.
The ride-hailing company said in a new regulatory filing that it hoped to be valued at up to $23 billion when it lists on the stock market as soon as next week, the highest number for a tech company since Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, went public at a $169 billion valuation in 2014. Lyft’s target value is significantly greater than its $15.1 billion valuation in its last private funding round, a sign that it expects a warm reception from investors.
That provides a benchmark for other tech companies that are preparing to go public this year, including Lyft’s chief rival, Uber, as well as Pinterest, Postmates, Slack and others. All are seeking high valuations, with their offerings likely to bring a wave of wealth to tech investors, founders and early employees that will once again rev up the Silicon Valley start-up ecosystem. Lyft’s I.P.O. is expected to be quickly eclipsed by Uber, which may go public at a valuation of up to $120 billion.
“We’re looking at Lyft as a bellwether for the summer I.P.O. market,” said Matthew Kennedy, a senior I.P.O. market strategist at Renaissance Capital. “The others in the pipeline are all watching Lyft and looking to see whether investors are interested in companies that are highly unprofitable but highly valuable.”
But in a troubling trend for some investors, Lyft’s new filing also revealed how tech founders are continuing to assert control over their companies in a way that gives other shareholders very little say. Because of a mechanism that gives Lyft’s two founders — Logan Green, the chief executive, and John Zimmer, the president — outsize voting rights, the duo will own less than 5 percent of the company’s outstanding stock once it is public but they will control nearly 49 percent of its voting shares.
The filing coincided with the start of Lyft’s so-called road show, a two-week run of meetings during which company executives and advisers will try to persuade prospective investors to grab a piece of what will the first ride-hailing firm to go public.
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Lyft’s offering will test how investors value the ride-hailing business model. Lyft and Uber have demonstrated rapid growth but neither company is profitable, and each spends heavily on subsidies for riders and drivers in an effort to win market share from each other. Lyft lost $911.3 million last year on revenue of $2.2 billion, the company disclosed in an earlier filing.
In its new filing, Lyft proposed a high-end share price of $62 to $68, a range that would generate about $2.1 billion, and perhaps as much as $2.4 billion if demand for shares is great enough for the company to increase the number it makes available.
Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer are set to reap hundreds of millions of dollars apiece as a result of the offering, the updated prospectus showed. Mr. Green’s stake would be worth about $569 million at the high end of the expected initial share price; Mr. Zimmer’s would be worth about $393 million.
Perhaps more important, the two men would retain control of Lyft, thanks to their ownership of a special class of shares that gives them 20 times the voting power of regular shareholders, despite each of them owning less than 3 percent of the company.
The arrangement is common in I.P.O.s by founder-led technology companies. Facebook and Snap, for example, ensured that their creators would keep an iron grip on their businesses. But the practice has been criticized by investor advocates who say that it creates a disadvantage for regular shareholders.
“This arrangement imposes a significant gap between those who exercise control over the company, and those who have economic exposure to the consequences of that control,” a coalition of institutional investors w
SAN FRANCISCO — Lyft officially signaled on Monday that it sought to have the biggest technology initial public offering since 2014, setting the stage for a bonanza of riches for young tech companies this year.
The ride-hailing company said in a new regulatory filing that it hoped to be valued at up to $23 billion when it lists on the stock market as soon as next week, the highest number for a tech company since Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, went public at a $169 billion valuation in 2014. Lyft’s target value is significantly greater than its $15.1 billion valuation in its last private funding round, a sign that it expects a warm reception from investors.
That provides a benchmark for other tech companies that are preparing to go public this year, including Lyft’s chief rival, Uber, as well as Pinterest, Postmates, Slack and others. All are seeking high valuations, with their offerings likely to bring a wave of wealth to tech investors, founders and early employees that will once again rev up the Silicon Valley start-up ecosystem. Lyft’s I.P.O. is expected to be quickly eclipsed by Uber, which may go public at a valuation of up to $120 billion.
“We’re looking at Lyft as a bellwether for the summer I.P.O. market,” said Matthew Kennedy, a senior I.P.O. market strategist at Renaissance Capital. “The others in the pipeline are all watching Lyft and looking to see whether investors are interested in companies that are highly unprofitable but highly valuable.”
But in a troubling trend for some investors, Lyft’s new filing also revealed how tech founders are continuing to assert control over their companies in a way that gives other shareholders very little say. Because of a mechanism that gives Lyft’s two founders — Logan Green, the chief executive, and John Zimmer, the president — outsize voting rights, the duo will own less than 5 percent of the company’s outstanding stock once it is public but they will control nearly 49 percent of its voting shares.
The filing coincided with the start of Lyft’s so-called road show, a two-week run of meetings during which company executives and advisers will try to persuade prospective investors to grab a piece of what will the first ride-hailing firm to go public.
You have 2 free articles remaining.
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Lyft’s offering will test how investors value the ride-hailing business model. Lyft and Uber have demonstrated rapid growth but neither company is profitable, and each spends heavily on subsidies for riders and drivers in an effort to win market share from each other. Lyft lost $911.3 million last year on revenue of $2.2 billion, the company disclosed in an earlier filing.
In its new filing, Lyft proposed a high-end share price of $62 to $68, a range that would generate about $2.1 billion, and perhaps as much as $2.4 billion if demand for shares is great enough for the company to increase the number it makes available.
Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer are set to reap hundreds of millions of dollars apiece as a result of the offering, the updated prospectus showed. Mr. Green’s stake would be worth about $569 million at the high end of the expected initial share price; Mr. Zimmer’s would be worth about $393 million.
Perhaps more important, the two men would retain control of Lyft, thanks to their ownership of a special class of shares that gives them 20 times the voting power of regular shareholders, despite each of them owning less than 3 percent of the company.
The arrangement is common in I.P.O.s by founder-led technology companies. Facebook and Snap, for example, ensured that their creators would keep an iron grip on their businesses. But the practice has been criticized by investor advocates who say that it creates a disadvantage for regular shareholders.
“This arrangement imposes a significant gap between those who exercise control over the company, and those who have economic exposure to the consequences of that control,” a coalition of institutional investors w
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