The investment bankers handling Uber’s IPO
are expected to reveal a pricing range for
Uber’s shares later this month. That will come
before executives head out on a so-called
road show designed to drum up interest in the
IPO among institutional investors who will be
given the first opportunity to buy the stock
before it begins trading on the New York Stock
Exchange next month.
In the end, Uber is widely expected to be
the biggest technology IPO since Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba Group went public in
- And it’s likely to be the largest among U.S.
tech companies since Facebook took its bow
on Wall Street seven years ago at a time when
most people hadn’t ever considered using an
app on their smartphone to summon a ride from
strangers driving their own cars.
Uber launched in 2009 as UberCab, a black car
service where customers could hail professional
drivers with a few taps on a smartphone. It
shortened its name to Uber in 2010, distancing
itself from the taxicab industry, which has
criticized the company for operating under less
regulation than the traditional taxi industry.
The company operates in 65 countries and has
completed 10 billion trips worldwide.
Uber is also expanding in other markets such as
freight while offering other ways to get around
with shared scooters and bikes. Its fast-growing
food delivery business, which spans 500 cities
globally, doubled its revenue to $757 million in
2018 from $367 million in 2017.
But Uber faces challenges that Lyft doesn’t
because of a series of damaging revelations
thatsullieditsreputationamongconsumers.
Image: Richard Drew
