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>The ride-hailing taxi app company has also faced legal action in the UK and US over its classification of drivers as self-employed contractors, rather than as workers.<doc-sep>Uber goes public: everything you need to know about the biggest tech IPO in years Share All sharing options for: Uber goes public: everything you need to know about the biggest tech IPO in years After almost a decade of disruption, Uber is finally going public. The company is the highest valued tech IPO since Facebook and Alibaba, and it’s part of a wave of Silicon Valley “unicorns” to go public this year, including Airbnb, Zoom, and Slack. While today’s debut represents a new chapter for the money-losing, scandal-prone Uber, it also likely signals the end of an era of cheap rides for millions of drivers and riders across the globe. Here’s everything you need to know about Uber’s big day. What’s the deal with Uber’s valuation? It’s up, it’s down... Late last year, the expectation was that Uber would go public at a whopping $120 billion, nearly double the company’s valuation in a fundraising round from August 2018. That would have made Uber more valuable than General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler — Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers — combined. But as the public offering neared, that valuation began to slip. Earlier this week, Uber said it expected to price its initial public offering between $44 and $50 per share, finally settling on the low end of $45. At that price, the company will be valued at about $75.46 billion, which still makes it one of the most valuable companies ever to go public, but that’s a 38 percent drop in its estimated valuation from October 2018. What happened? A bunch of things, most notably the experience of main rival Lyft since it went public in late March. Since then, its stock has fallen more than 25 percent. Lyft also reported losing a staggering $1.1 billion in its first quarter earnings, which the company chalked up to 2019 being a “peak loss” year. Expect the same from Uber. The ride-hail company already loses somewhere around $800 million a quarter, and it is significantly larger than Lyft, with a global reach and numerous side businesses like food delivery and freight. When asked by CNBC if 2019 will also be a year of peak losses for Uber, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that was the “intent.” Uber already loses obscene amounts of money; it will interesting to see how the markets react to accelerated cash loses later this year. Wait, what’s the deal with Travis Kalanick? Okay, very quickly because this is kind of petty: Uber’s co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick was not invited by Khosrowshahi to help ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange this morning, which some see as a major snub. If you’ll remember, Kalanick was the face of the company during Uber’s annus horribilis in 2017 when self-inflicted scandals began piling up like for-hire vehicles on the 101 freeway. He was ousted in mid-2017 and replaced by Khosrowshahi, but he remains a major player in the company as a board member and a minority shareholder. Kalanick wanted to help ring the bell today, but Khosrowshahi reportedly said no. It seemed like a move designed to emphasize Uber’s future rather than its past. But, of course, all anyone could think was “drama!” Asked about Kalanick’s absence on the dais, Khosrowshahi told CNBC that those spaces were reserved for “longtime employees who have been with us thick and thin, and drivers and couriers who use our service. That’s what the dais should honor.” That said, he also praised Kalanick for his “genius” and noted that the ex-CEO was still there to celebrate and rub elbows with executives and investors. Okay, so Uber’s public now. What does that mean for me? Most of the sums we’re talking about are huge, abstract, and don’t mean much to the average person. Assuming you aren’t Jeff Bezos (unless you are; hi, Jeff!) or Kalanick, Uber going public isn’t going to result in some influx of billions of dollars into your bank account. To answer that question, though, it depends on what type of person you are. Are you a person who uses Uber frequently or semi-frequently? If so, Uber’s IPO will likely mean more expensive rides in the near future. Uber’s IPO is likely to mean more expensive rides in the near future But, you may ask, isn’t Uber in a price war with Lyft? And shouldn’t that mean cheaper, not more expensive, fares? Perhaps in some markets, Uber will slash prices to poach riders from Lyft, but that’s not likely to last very long. Both companies are now public and will face pressure from big investors and shareholders every quarter to stem their losses. As previously mentioned, both Uber and Lyft are huge money losers. In 2018, Uber reported an operating loss of $3 billion on revenue of $11.3 billion, and its accumulated deficit reached nearly $8 billion at the end of last year. Both Uber and Lyft have been subsidized over the past decade by venture capitalists and other private investors who have been willing to bet on the ride-hailing upstarts and whose funding allowed the experiments to grow with low fares. The companies used this cash influx to decimate the incumbent taxi industry and grab huge amounts of market share. But as public companies, that stage of their lives ends now. There are other enormous pressures. Hundreds of Uber drivers went on strike this week ahead of the IPO in an effort to highlight poor pay and unsatisfactory working conditions. They argue that Uber’s business model enriches the company’s executives at the expense of low-paid drivers who are classified as independent contractors, making them ineligible for the benefits of full-time employment. Just ahead of its IPO, Uber said in a regulatory filing it had reached settlements with the majority of the 60,000 drivers who filed arbitration complaints over their employment status. The settlements should cost between $146 million and $170 million. Uber doles out cash incentives to drivers to keep them on its platform, hurting its bottom line even further, as well as rider discounts.<doc-sep>Become an FT subscriber to read: Leverage our market expertise Expert insights, analysis and smart data help you cut through the noise to spot trends, risks and opportunities. Join over 300,000 Finance professionals who already subscribe to the FT.<doc-sep>
Cathy Bussewitz And Michael Liedtke, The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO -- Uber's next stop is the stock market, where it hopes to pick up more investors willing to bet on a ride-hailing market brimming with potential and conspicuously lacking in profits. The world's largest ride-hailing service reached a major milestone Thursday when Uber priced its long-awaited initial public offering at $45 price per share to set the stage for its stock to begin trading Friday morning. 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. No matter how Uber's stock swings Friday, the IPO has to be considered a triumph for the company most closely associated with an industry that has changed the way millions of people get around. That while also transforming the way millions of more people earn a living in the gig economy. The IPO raised another $8.1 billion for Uber as it tries to fend off Lyft in the U.S. and help cover the cost of giving rides to passengers at unprofitable prices. The San Francisco company already has lost about $9 billion since its inception and acknowledges it could still be years before it turns a profit. That sobering reality is one reason that Uber fell well short of reaching the $120 billion market value that many observers believed its IPO might attain. Another factor working against Uber is the cold shoulder investors have been giving Lyft's stock after an initial run-up. Lyft's shares closed Thursday 23% below its April IPO price of $72. Uber "clearly learned from its 'little brother' Lyft, and the experience it has gone through," Wedbush Securities analysts Ygal Arounian and Daniel Ives wrote late Thursday. The jitters about an intensifying U.S. trade war with China also have roiled the stock market this week. Despite all that, Uber's IPO is the biggest since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group debuted with a value of $167.6 billion in 2014. "For the market to give you the value, you've either got to have a lot of profits or potential for huge growth," said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Navigant Research. Uber boasts growth galore. Its revenue last year surged 42% to $11.3 billion while its cars completed 5.2 billion trips around the world either giving rides to 91 million passengers or delivering food. Uber might be even more popular if not for a series of revelations about unsavourybehaviour that sullied its image and resulted in the ouster of its co-founder, Travis Kalanick, as CEO nearly two years ago. The self-inflicted wounds included complaints about rampant internal sexual harassment , accusations that it stole self-driving car technology , and a coverup of a computer break-in that stole personal information about its passengers. What's more, some Uber drivers have been accused of assaulting passengers, and one of its self-driving test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona last year while a backup driver was behind the wheel. Uber hired Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO to replace Kalanick and clean up the mess, something that analysts say has been able to do to some extent, although Lyft seized upon the scandals to gain market share. Kalanick remains on Uber's board, although he isn't expected to be on the podium to help ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to herald the company's debut Friday. Instead, he will be left standing on the sidelines while the spotlight shines on other Uber executives, although Kalanick can still savour his newfound wealth. At $45 per share, his stake in Uber will be worth $5.3 billion. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other Uber employees are expected to become millionaires in the IPO. Meanwhile, scores of Uber drivers say they have been mistreated by the company as they work long hours and wear out their cars picking up passengers as they struggle to make ends meet. On Wednesday, some of them participated in strikes across the United States to highlight their unhappiness ahead of Uber's IPO but barely caused a ripple. A similar strike was organized ahead of Lyft's IPO to the same effect.