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Lyft files for IPO, says it 'represents freedom at your fingertips'
Lyft is the first US ride-hailing company to be heading to the stock market.
Filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday for its initial public offering, Lyft said it plans to "revolutionize transportation" and be the "defining brand of our generation."
It's unclear what the pricing of Lyft's shares will be when it finally does go public. But it's estimated the company will come in at a valuation of as much as $25 billion. Listing on the Nasdaq and using the ticker symbol LYFT, the IPO could arrive as soon as April.
"We believe that our brand represents freedom at your fingertips: freedom from the stresses of car ownership and freedom to do and see more," Lyft wrote in the filing. "We believe that cities should be built for people, not cars."
The move puts Lyft ahead of its rival Uber in the race to Wall Street. Uber's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has publicly said the company is focusing on going public in the second half of 2019, but it's looking like that timeline may be flexible. Uber submitted paperwork to the SEC for an IPO in early December.
While Uber and Lyft offer the same service, hailing a ride with a smartphone app, it's expected each company will point potential investors to different aspects of its business. Uber will reportedly showcase itself as a global company with diverse features such as food delivery and flying cars. Lyft, much smaller, with services only in the US and Canada, is focusing on being a stable company that hasn't experienced the same kind of turmoil as Uber.
"Unsurprisingly, Lyft advocates that its key success factors include founder leadership, culture and values, and a singular focus on transportation," Rohit Kulkarni, senior vice president of research for investment firm Forge. "Arguably, Lyft is taking a jab at Uber's miseries and general lack of exclusive focus on ride-sharing over the past couple of years."
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday March 04 2019, @03:39PM (9 children)
I know it more complex than that, but I seriously wonder what Lyft and Uber intend to do to actually make their services profitable as a corporation. Right now it seems to be a hope that if they only get enough volume they'll make up it up on margin. If I had time I'd try to analyze just how much more business they'd need to have to get there, or if they're simply digging a deeper hole. For themselves corporately, and for any driver who isn't smart enough to figure vehicle maintenance and depreciation into the equation of knowing how much the driver is actually making by burning their vehicle's life for ride-hailing. (I have a friend at work who is so impressed at what she makes driving part time at Uber, yet she has no conceptualization of what it's actually costing her to drive for them. She just figures it all as labor profit to her.)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @04:22PM (2 children)
Nobody would drive for them if it wasn't profitable. Because people are rational decision-makers.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 04 2019, @04:50PM
The profit we're talking about is for the investors, not the Lyft driver. Lyft as a company and Uber as a company got massive investments and have been bleeding money for a long time. At least that's the impression I've received. I'm not much interested, so I've not really looked into it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @06:23PM
Now that right there is a whole bunch of khallow!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday March 04 2019, @04:44PM (5 children)
The aim of the game is to ride the hype train until you can replace drivers with driverless vehicles. That will require either borrowing money to buy a fleet of driverless cars outright, or partnering with car companies to rent driverless cars and split proceeds. Make no mistake, these companies want to kick drivers to the curb to DIE.
The cost per mile for driverless is expected to be substantially lower [soylentnews.org] than ride-hailing services or taxis. It is pretty much assumed that all driverless car services will use 100% electric vehicles with lower operating costs. Obviously, you can't avoid needing to repair and charge cars, but that will be factored into the cost per mile.
Uber is valued higher than Lyft and has higher revenue, so it can probably borrow more money and ramp up driverless quicker than Lyft can. On the other hand, Lyft has avoided the cavalcade of bad PR events that have plagued Uber (sure to be discussed in business courses for decades to come), and has managed to grow its market share as a result. You don't really see people deleting the Lyft app in protest, but that is exactly what we have seen with Uber. Uber's driverless efforts were also set back by months if not years by causing the death of a pedestrian.
Google/Waymo is the elephant in the room. Not only is Waymo buying thousands of driverless cars, but they are building a driverless car factory. They are buying or building multiple types of driverless cars for different segments:
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet [soylentnews.org]
Waymo Partners With Jaguar for 20,000 Self-Driving Electric SUVs [soylentnews.org]
Waymo Announces Plans for a Driverless Vehicle Factory in Michigan [soylentnews.org]
Why have more than one kind of car? To be less samey and to offer a premium option (the kind the business class flyer would use after leaving the airport). The small toy-looking cars that Google manufactures or designs could be used for shorter trips and more crowded urban areas.
With Google's backing, Waymo could brute force their way to the top with money. I would compare the scenario to two other Google ventures. The first was Google Fiber. It's almost dead at this point, but it in part accomplished the goal of spurring more high-speed and gigabit internet development. And if Google really wanted to become the top ISP or something, it would have needed to spend tens or perhaps over $100 billion. It wasn't worth it (and Starlink [wikipedia.org] will be the real savior).
The other example is the Google Home voice assistant. Amazon dominated the voice-activated speaker market, but Google made (arguably) a better product, and poured money into marketing the device, bundling it at a low cost, etc. And they managed to turn the tide. [slate.com]
For driverless cars, Google has another option: focus regionally and expand outward. Even if they have tens of thousands of driverless cars almost ready to go, that's obviously not enough to serve the entire United States. But it could be enough to blanket one state with driverless car service. So far they have had an anemic debut [soylentnews.org] in Phoenix, Arizona in order to claim that they "launched" in 2018. But you could see them rapidly expanding to serve the entire state, and then moving on from there. Google's driverless cars have probably driven 1-2 orders of magnitude more miles than competitors, and they may be years ahead of Uber and Lyft. So if they can incubate the service in Arizona and California, in a way that is actually profitable, then they have a recipe for displacing Uber and Lyft nationwide soon. And they don't even have to kick any drivers to the curb... because they didn't have any to start with! Ok, they had the test drivers, but... bye.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday March 04 2019, @07:06PM (2 children)
They only need automation because they couldn't quite get to "plan A : bankrupt all taxis, limos, and public transport with our VC-subsidized higher-convenience rides, before raising prices and turning a profit".
In the case of Uber, add at least 7 expletives and actionable statements to that sentence.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday March 04 2019, @07:17PM (1 child)
Waymo doesn't come with that baggage. They are entering into the market with driverless from the start.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 04 2019, @07:25PM
I was referring to the Big 2. Waymo didn't rush to break all the rules and VC-subsidize their way into as many markets as possible.
> They are entering into the market with driverless from the start.
Well ... They wish. But they haven't dared ditch the safety guys yet.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday March 04 2019, @07:09PM (1 child)
Yes, there are so many industries which would be so much more profitable without the people involved. But it's OK, they'll all magically get other jobs somehow, right? The economic expansion that will create will surely fill in the holes so that all the sub-$22 K / year people will find new and better things and they'll prosper even better. Yes, I'm sure that's true. The free market will save us.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday March 04 2019, @07:18PM
Well, you know what they say...
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]