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Ridesharing firm Lyft, which filed a confidential initial public offering filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December, is gearing up for an IPO in the coming weeks.
Drew Pascarella
Lecturer of Finance
Drew Pascarella, senior lecturer of finance in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, says the move will open the tech IPO market which has recently been starved.
Pascarella says:
“The Company, which completed a $600 million Series I private funding in June of 2018, will be the first technology company to tap the U.S. IPO market this year. An IPO will provide additional capital to bolster its position vs. Uber, and provide an exit path for Lyft’s a-list VC and late-stage private investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Founders, and KKR.
“The tech IPO market, which has been recently starved mostly for technical reasons (the U.S. government shutdown and now ‘stale’ financials), will likely be most focused on Lyft’s valuation, growth and path to sustained profitability and cash flow generation. I expect less focus on a dual-class structure; shareholders always maintain the right to vote with their feet irrespective of how much control founders have.”
