On July 14 2017 (see video), I made a case that Uber will merge/acquire Lyft. As Lyft loses steam, post-IPO, and Uber coming to party, the pressure will heat up on Lyft. Then Lyft will surrender, and Uber will buy it within three years. Similar rivalries have ended together: Elance/Odesk (now UpWork), Groupon / LivingSocial, Sirius / XM and Rover / DogVacay.
Shares of Lyft slid 19.55% in the past week as investors finally got their first look inside rival Uber’s business. The stock closed in the negative four out of five days this week and dropped about $3 billion in market capitalization.
The stock started the week priced at $74.45 from it April 5 close, still above its March 28 IPO price of $72. As of Friday’s market close, shares traded at $59.90 with a market capitalization of $17.1 billion, marking a new 52-week low.
Lyft sank 1.8% on Friday, a day after Uber released its S-1 where it reported 2018 revenue of $11.27 billion compared with Lyft’s $2.2 billion. Uber said it had a net profit of $997 million in 2018, though it has a loss of $1.85 billion on an adjusted EBITDA basis. Lyft reported a loss of $911 million in its public filing.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Jun 3 - Sep 2, 2024), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.