With their highly anticipated IPO today, Lyft is the first in a growing list of highly valued tech unicorns that have been eyeing the public market throughout the early part of 2019. On Friday the seven-year-old ride-hailing company went public at $87.24 a share with a valuation of $28 billion. It joins an exclusive club of disruptive companies — Airbnb, Uber, Slack and Pinterest — that have amassed huge sums of private capital with valuations never before seen on Wall Street.
In a move aimed to compensate for the growing inequity,both ride-hailing companies recently announced different plans to offer their contract drivers variations of cash bonuses and stock options upon going public. Tim Sullivan, CEO of venture capital firm Oceanic Partners, said that the move shows a degree of goodwill despite his own skepticism that contractors who drive for either company will really benefit from their offerings in a significant way.
"Whether a contractor or an employee, I just think of everyone as a worker," he said."Companies want their workers to be happy, and that's why Uber and Lyft are making this kind of offer. Happier workers means better service, and better service means happier customers, but nobody was under the illusion that equity as a benefit was part of the deal between contractors and Uber or Lyft.
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Lyft Shares Open at $87.24, Up 21% from IPO Price of $72Lyft’s shares jumped 21% in their stock-trading debut, as investors gobbled up the first public opportunity to buy into the future of ride hailing. The $87.24 opening price gives Lyft a valuation of roughly $30 billion. best part about the future: it doesn't exist. $LYFT It's a crazy world we live in when you turn an app into billions of dollars and recreate a modern day slave trade economy jsjawandha did you but
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