Author: Mike Isaac, Kate Conger and Erin Griffith / Source: New York Times
Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber, which is racing its rival Lyft to the public markets. Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber confidentially filed paperwork on Thursday to go public, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, officially moving toward what is expected to be one of the biggest and most anticipated tech company stock market debuts ever.
The ride-hailing company filed its paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the same day that its rival Lyft also filed for an offering, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Each company is rushing to beat the other to the public markets in the first half of next year amid a fair climate for technology I.P.O.s and worries of a potential economic recession.
Uber and Lyft declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Uber had filed its public offering documents.
Uber, the world’s biggest ride-hailing company, has been told by investment bankers that it could be worth as much as $120 billion in an I.P.O. At that valuation, it would be the biggest offering since the Alibaba Group of China began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. It would dwarf the market capitalization of more established companies such as Goldman Sachs, putting it at around the same value as I.B.M. or McDonald’s. And it would likely bring enormous windfalls for many of its investors, founders and employees.
It would also be a steep jump in what private investors thought Uber was worth. In August, when Toyota made a $500 million investment in Uber, the company was valued at $76 billion.
Uber and Lyft are expected to presage a wave of I.P.O.s by other tech start-ups, many of which have delayed going public for years because of the plentiful availability of private capital. But as these companies mature and their early investors push to cash out their stakes, many are readying for their stock market debuts.
Airbnb, the online room rental company, is among those that have made little secret that they are also preparing to become public companies. Slack, a workplace collaboration software company valued at $7.1 billion, recently hired Goldman Sachs to lead its I.P.O., said a person with knowledge of the plans. Slack declined to comment about hiring Goldman, which was reported earlier by Reuters.
“It is like the graduation. The adolescents have become adults,” said Mamoon Hamid, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “The longest bull run in history is now culminating with a whole slew of I.P.O.s.” He added, “Uber is in the same ballpark as Facebook and Google.”
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have submitted proposals to take Uber public. Lyft, which…
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