Uber’s trading debut: who was (and wasn’t) at the opening bell Uber finally made its debut Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, ending its decade-long journey from startup to publicly traded company. So far, it’s been a ho-hum beginning, with shares opening at $42, down from the IPO price. The share price is hovering just under $44. Thirteen people, including executives, early employees, drivers and customers, were on the balcony for the historic bell ringing that opened the markets Friday. Noticeable absentees were co-founder Garrett Camp and former CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted from the company in June 2017 after a string of scandals around Uber’s business practices. Kalanick, who still sits on the board and has an 8.6% stake in Uber, wasn’t part of the opening bell ceremony. However, Kalanick and Camp were both at the NYSE for the event. Here is who participated in the opening bell ceremony. The bell ringer Austin Geidt, who rang the bell, was employee No. 4 when she started as an intern in 2010, and is one of Uber’s earliest employees. Geidt joined Uber in 2010 and has since worked in numerous positions at the company. She led Uber’s expansion in hundreds of new cities and dozens of new countries. Geidt now heads up strategy for Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, the unit working on autonomous vehicles. Executives CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stood next to Geidt at the opening of the market Friday. Khosrowshahi joined Uber in 2017 after Kalanick resigned and the board launched an extensive search for an executive who could change the culture at the company and prepare it for an eventual IPO. Khosrowshahi was the CEO of Expedia before joining Uber. Khosrowshahi gave a one-year update on his time at Uber during TechCrunch Disrupt in September 2018. Uber CTO Thuan Pham has been with the company since 2013. Prior to coming to Uber, Pham was vice president of engineering at VMware. Rachel Holt, vice president and head of New Mobility, was also on hand. Holt has worked at Uber since October 2011, when the company was live in just three cities. In May 2016, she became VP and regional general manager of Uber’s operations in the U.S. and Canada. She was promoted to head up new mobility in June 2018. She’s responsible for the ramp-up and onboarding of additional mobility services, including public transit integration, scooters, car rentals and bikes. Other executives included Pierre-Dimitry Gore-Coty and Andrew MacDonald, both vice presidents and regional general managers at Uber, as well as Jason Droege, a vice president who heads up Uber Eats. Droege, who joined Uber in 2014, has the official title of head of UberEverything. This is the team that created the food delivery service Uber Eats, which now operates in 35 countries. Drivers Uber had five drivers on hand for the opening bell, who represented different services and geographies. Among the drivers were: Jerry Bruner, a Los Angeles-based driver who is a military veteran and former professional golfer. Bruner has completed more than 30,000 Uber trips. Tiffany Hanna, a military veteran, is based out of Springfield, Missouri. Hanna is a truck driver who uses the Uber Freight carrier app. Jonelle Bain, a New York-based driver . Uber, which shared the bios of the drivers, said Bain is taking coding classes and plans to become a software engineer. Uber, which shared the bios of the drivers, said Bain is taking coding classes and plans to become a Onur Kerey is a driver based out of London. Kerey is deaf. According to his bio, “ He doesn’t let his disability get in the way of his passion for driving or connecting with others.” J. Alexander Palacio Sanchez is based in Australia and has been driving with Uber since 2015. His true passion is acting, according to Uber, and at the urging of his riders, he auditioned for the role of Kevin in “ The Heights” — and landed it. Customers One customer, Elise Wu, also participated in the opening bell. Wu owns Kampai, a family of restaurants in France that serves affordable cuisine made available for delivery through Uber Eats.<doc-sep>Shares of Uber (UBER) fell more than 7% on its first day of trading Friday, marking a rocky Wall Street debut for a company that endured plenty of bumps on its long road to going public. Uber opened at $42 a share on Friday, below its IPO price of $45, and ended the day even lower at $41.57. That makes it one of the rare venture capital-backed technology companies to finish its first day of trading in the red. Its public debut came at the end of a turbulent week filled with headlines about striking workers, steep losses in the ride-hailing industry and broader market jitters over an escalating trade war between the United States and China.<doc-sep>"My reaction (to the share price) is if we build and build well, shareholders will be rewarded. We're certainly not measuring our success over a day, it really is over the years," Khosrowshahi said.<doc-sep>Throughout the morning, indications of Uber's opening trade price dropped from an initial estimate of $46 to $48, until it opened at $42 per share. That's below the $45 price of shares sold in its initial public offering, and even below the $44 low point of the company's estimated pricing range last week . Uber closed at $41.57. Shares of ride-hailing company Lyft fell 7.4% on Friday after larger rival Uber had a disappointing debut on the New York Stock Exchange, closing down 7.6%. Uber is becoming a public company during a week of back-and-forth tensions over trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. On Friday morning the major indexes were all down at least 1%, though they turned around later in the day and all finished up. Lyft was having a rough week already. The shares fell more than 10% Wednesday after the company released its first earnings report since going public. Lyft had a stronger opening than Uber when it started trading on March 29. The company priced shares at $72 each, then the stock began trading at $87.24. The shares moved lower, and the closing price on the first day of trading was $78.29, but that was still above the IPO price. WATCH: Lyft co-founders are focused on offering the best service, not just a cheaper one<doc-sep>
After a long and bumpy road, Uber is officially a public company. The company started publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning. Notably absent at the bell-ringing ceremony was the company's controversial co-founder and ousted CEO, Travis Kalanick, who wasn't invited. It looks like current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi doesn't want to relive Uber's early days, when it earned a nasty reputation for its cut-throat , sexist , and harassment-riddled corporate culture. Now, Khosrowshahi is pushing a "do the right thing" mentality, as he looks beyond ride-hailing toward food delivery, bike- and scooter-sharing, and even flying taxis. While Kalanick wasn't on the balcony, he did get to savor the event on the NYSE floor with his father, where we was, according to Mike Isaac of the New York Times, greeted with applause. However, it looks like Kalanick left the building before the first Uber trade. There's Travis + his father arriving at NYSE for Uber IPO pic.twitter.com/6QTOAyDm5i — Polina Marinova (@polina_marinova) May 10, 2019 Travis Kalanick arrived around 830, with his father, walked NYSE floor together. There was a moment when Garrett camp, Ryan Graves and TK all met. Travis’ entrance was met with enormous applause. whole event is crowded but also fairly muted thus far. (much desired from execs) — rat king (@MikeIsaac) May 10, 2019 Uber shares opened Friday at $42, lower than the IPO price of $45. Kalanick owns 117 million shares of Uber stock, while Khosrowshahi holds just under 200,000. Former CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, during better days when he was still running his company in 2016. Image: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair Kalanick has moved on with his own investment fund, 10100 Fund. But he's still clearly connected to Uber (he testified just over a year ago during the Uber v. Waymo trade secrets trial). Smaller rival Lyft went public in March, beating Uber to the punch, although it only operates in the U.S. and Canada. Uber is available in more than 65 countries. Both are unprofitable. Lyft lost nearly $1 billion in 2018, while Uber lost $1.8 billion.