The Latest: Shares of Lyft soar as company goes public
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Latest on ride-hailing giant Lyft’s IPO (all times local):
8:50 a.m. PT
Shares of Lyft, Inc. are soaring as the company goes public.
The stock opened at 87.24, up 21 percent from its offering price of $72, which was better than its initial expected range of $62 to $68.
The debut marks the first time most people who have used their smartphone to summon a car through Lyft or its larger rival Uber can bet on whether the ride-hailing phenomenon will be a money maker.
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7 a.m. PST
Lyft is celebrating its IPO in a former car dealership that it’s turning into a center for Lyft drivers.
The venue symbolizes how the ride-hailing company has changed the way we experience transportation.
Co-founder and CEO Logan Green said in the early days of the company, he was told he was crazy to think people would ride in each others’ personal vehicles. Now the company has provided more than 1 billion rides.
John Zimmer, Lyft’s president and co-founder, says the road ahead comes with massive opportunities and genuine challenges.
Lyft says it will invest $50 million annually or 1 percent of profits in transportation initiatives in cities. The investments will include free or discounted rides for medical patients and low-income seniors and developing infrastructure for bikes, scooters and transit.
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3 a.m. PST
Lyft had little trouble getting investors to hop on board its increasingly popular ride-hailing service, as its initial public offering fetched a $72 per-share price that exceeded even its own expectations.
The next big test comes Friday morning when the San Francisco company’s stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “LYFT.”
It will mark the first time that most people who have used their smartphone to summon a car dispatched by Lyft or its bigger rival, Uber, will have a chance to make a bet on whether the ride-hailing phenomenon will continue to transform transportation and eventually become a major money maker.
The institutional investors that bought into the IPO clearly think so, enabling Lyft to demand a price that was above its initial goal of $62 to $68 per share.
