May 10, 2019: Uber is set for its Wall Street debut Friday with a massive share offering that is a milestone for the ride-hailing industry and the so-called “sharing economy,” but which comes with simmering concerns about its business model.
Shares will be priced at $45 for the initial public offering (IPO), valuing the startup at more than $82 billion, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
San Francisco-based Uber was set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the eponymous ticker “UBER” in one of the largest initial public offerings in the tech sector.
Despite the eye-popping valuation, Uber dialed back some of its earlier ambitions for a value exceeding $100 billion after a rocky start for US rideshare rival Lyft.
Analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said Uber has the potential to be a game-changing company and “is paving a similar road to what Amazon did to transform retail/ecommerce and Facebook did for social media.”
Ives said Uber has the potential to grow as it morphs its ridesharing platform into a more diverse set of services with Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and self-driving vehicle initiatives.
“We view Uber's conservative pricing as a smart and prudent strategy coming out of the box as it clearly learned from its 'little brother' Lyft, and the experience it has gone through over the past month,” Ives said in a note to investors.
