Uber went public Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "UBER." The big day kicked off with the traditional bell-ringing ceremony on Friday morning on the NYSE balcony. Here are pictures of Uber's biggest players on opening day, including CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, former CEO Travis Kalanick, and other Uber directors. Uber opened at $42 on Friday morning, below its IPO price of $45. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Uber went public Friday, and began trading under the ticker symbol "UBER" in one of the largest IPOs in US history. The ride-hailing company kicked off its IPO day on the New York Stock Exchange with the traditional bell-ringing ceremony that signals the start of trading for the day. Before the day began, there was already some drama surrounding the ceremony. Controversial former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick reportedly asked the company's current CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, if he could be on the balcony to help ring in Uber's IPO. However, Khosrowshahi rejected his request, but Kalanick is there on the floor of the NYSE. This is the biggest tech IPO since Facebook in 2012. Uber has an initial market cap of $75.5 billion, and priced its IPO at $45 a share. Here are pictures from Uber's bell-ringing ceremony for its IPO on Friday:<doc-sep>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>NEW YORK (AP) -- The Latest on ride-hailing giant Uber's initial public stock offering (all times local): 4:30 p.m. Uber capped off a rocky first day of trading on Wall Street with its shares closing at $41.57, down almost 8% from their starting price of $45. It's uncommon for shares in a company with such a high profile to stumble out of the gate. The disappointing performance reflects financial market turmoil due to trade tensions and lingering doubts about whether fast-growing ride-hailing companies will ever turn a profit. Despite the volatile stock market, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he did not consider postponing Uber's IPO date. Shares in Lyft, Uber's chief rival, slumped to $51.09 Friday, 29% below their IPO price. ___ 3:00 p.m. Despite his company's rocky stock market debut, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says he's thrilled to complete his company's IPO. Khosrowshahi told The Associated Press Friday it was a tough week to go public, but the company got it done. Despite the volatile stock market, Khosrowshahi said he did not consider postponing Uber's IPO date. He stressed that Uber is not a fair-weather company and keeps moving forward in tough and easy environments. He added that the $8 billion Uber raised is crucial for the ride-hailing company's future growth plans, and called it a great moment for Uber and the employees who worked so hard. Uber's stock was trading at about 3% lower than its IPO price Friday afternoon. _____ 1:36 p.m. Uber's transition to becoming a publicly traded company is landing with a thud, but it's not the first to experience that, not even this week. However, it is uncommon for a company with such a high profile to stumble out of the gate. Uber raised almost $25 billion in 23 rounds of financing before going public. Matt Kennedy, a senior IPO market strategist at Renaissance Capital, says that over the past five years, just 10% of U.S. technology companies backed by venture capital finished their first day of trading below their IPO price. Story continues Facebook debuted in 2012, and after technical difficulties delayed its start to trading, it ended its first day just 23 cents above its IPO price of $38. Kennedy points out that unlike Facebook, however, Uber hasn't been turning profits. After falling close to 9% Friday, shares of Uber Technologies Inc. are down less than 1%. _____ 12:39 p.m. Uber is suffering a terrible first day as a public company as its shares slid into negative territory in the initial moments of trading. That's highly unusual, especially for a high-profile tech company like Uber. Shares of rid-sharing rival Lyft soared 21% at one point during its initial public offering in late March. But that company has had a rough ride since, falling almost 30% since it debuted. Some analysts pointed to volatile market conditions over the past few weeks, and Friday as well. All major U.S. markets are in decline, having fallen 3% or more this week. SharesPost principal analyst Alejandro Ortiz said the timing for Uber trading to start was bad with the uncertainty over the trade spat with China. He said that if you saw value in Uber at its IPO price of $45, nothing has changed in the last 48 hours. Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. are down more than 1%, but had fallen more severely in early trading. _____ 11:59 a.m. Uber's shares began trading about $2 below its initial public offering price of $45. Traders scratched their heads Friday, trying to remember a high-profile IPO like Uber going south on the first day. Shares of Lyft, a rival in the ride-sharing business, are tumbling 6%. That company has had a very rough time since it went public at the end of March. It hit a new all-time low Friday. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tried to control expectations, telling CNBC that Uber investors are in it for the long ride. He says the company will be judged on what it does in three to five years. _____ 10:50 a.m. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (DAH-rah CAWS-row-SHAH-hee) is trying to tamp down the hype on the first day that the general public will be allowed to buy stock in the company. Khosrowshahi says as much as he wants things to go well during Uber's first day as a public company, what's more important is what is created in the next three to five years. Both Uber co-founders, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, were also present at the exchange for the opening but absent from the podium during the bell ringing. Tony West, Uber's chief legal officer who has been working to repair Uber's image while settling lawsuits around the globe, shot smartphone videos from the floor while waiting for the first trade. Uber becomes a publicly traded company Friday. Shares are expected to begin trading before noon. _____ 10:10 a.m. The opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange was rung by Austin Geidt, one of Uber's earliest employees. She joined the company in 2010 and is now head of strategy for Uber's Advanced Technologies Group, which works on autonomous vehicles. She and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi were joined by Uber drivers from around the world and other Uber executives at the NYSE. Uber becomes a publicly traded company Friday. Shares are expected to begin trading before noon. ___ 9:30 a.m. With a ring of the opening bell Uber is looking to pick up passengers as a newly public company. Investors waited to bet on a service with huge potential, but a long way from turning a profit. Shares in the ride-hailing giant were sold in an initial public offering for $45 each, raising $8.1 billion, but it will take several hours for new investors to show whether they're interested. Officials expect trading to start around 11:30 a.m. Friday. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and other company officials stood on a balcony above the New York Stock Exchange as the bell rang to signal the start of the day's trading. Khosrowshahi posed for selfies and after the bell while controversial co-founder Travis Kalanick and other Uber officials and employees stood on the trading floor. The IPO came in at the lower end of Uber's targeted price range of $44 to $50 per share. The caution may have been driven by escalating doubts about the ability of ride-hailing services to make money since Uber's main rival, Lyft, went public six weeks ago. Even at the tamped-down price, Uber now has a market value of $82 billion — five times more than Lyft's.<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.