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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.
(about 7 hours later)
Lyft hopes to be valued at up to $23 billion in its initial public offering, the ride-hailing company said in a regulatory filing on Monday as it entered the final stage of its push to become the next big publicly traded technology start-up in the United States. The target value is significantly greater than the $15.1 billion Lyft’s was valued at in its last private funding round last year. 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 filing, an updated prospectus, coincided with the start of the company’s so-called road show, a two-week run of meetings during which Lyft executives and advisers will try to persuade prospective investors to grab a piece of what will probably be one of the year’s biggest public offerings — at least until Lyft’s ride-hailing rival, Uber, proceeds with its own offering in the next few months. 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.
The new prospectus proposes 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. 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.
The filing also sheds new light on the holdings of Lyft’s founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer, who started the company in 2007 and have built it into a smaller but still fierce rival to Uber. “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.”
Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer are set to reap hundreds of millions of dollars apiece as a result of the offering, the prospectus shows. 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. But in a troubling trend, 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.
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. Together, Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer will own less than 5 percent of the outstanding stock and control nearly 49 percent of Lyft’s 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.
The arrangement is common in initial public offerings by founder-led technology companies. Facebook and Snap, for example, ensured that their creators would keep iron grips on their businesses. But the practice has been criticized by investor advocates who say that it creates a disadvantage for regular shareholders. 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.
Lyft’s public offering is expected to come before the end of the month. 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 wrote in a letter last week to Lyft’s board that asked them to reconsider the arrangement.
In a video promoting the company’s roadshow that was also released on Monday, Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer discussed their reasons for founding Lyft. The video showed Mr. Green, 35, riding a public bus in San Francisco and recalling a visit to Zimbabwe, where he drew inspiration from car pools he saw there. Mr. Zimmer, 34, reflected on his time in hotel management while wandering through a hotel parking garage.
In the video, the pair then meet in the back seat of a car, where they hinted at their advantages: Their company is still led by its founders, they said, and is solely focused on consumer transportation without side bets in food delivery and freight shipments. Their message was a dig at Uber, whose founders are no longer in executive roles at the company and which has expanded into food delivery with Uber Eats and freight shipments with Uber Freight.
“Car ownership in the U.S. is failing people,” Mr. Zimmer said in the video, suggesting that the transportation industry will eventually flip from car ownership to ride services like Lyft.
The price for Lyft’s shares is expected to be finalized on March 28, according to Ipreo, setting the company up to begin trading on the stock market on March 29.