Ride-sharing firms plan IPOs

Article Excerpt

UBER and LYFT are the two-largest ride-hailing companies in the U.S. Each lets passengers use a smartphone app to hire drivers, who use their own personal vehicles. As well, both are expanding into related fields such as food delivery and self-driving vehicles. Lyft plans to sell shares to the public in April 2019. Based on its latest round of funding, it’s worth around $15 billion. Uber also plans an IPO, probably in the second half of 2019. It could be worth $90 billion. Both IPOs will undoubtedly attract huge investor interest. However, based on preliminary filings, both firms are still losing money and continue to face regulatory hurdles. For example, a U.K. court recently ruled that Uber drivers are employees, not self-employed contractors. As a result, those drivers are entitled to minimum wage and vacation pay. We’ll take a closer look at both of these upcoming IPOs in the next issue. issue…