Lyft IPO to be valued at $23 Billion; a Tech Bubble?

Lyft has beaten Uber to the punch on their IPO fillings; Lyft is expected to go public in coming week and is approximately valued around $23 Billion.

The company expects to be valued at as much as $23 billion. It plans to sell about 35.4 million shares, including the additional shares allotted to the underwriters, at between $62 to $68 a piece. At the high-end of that range, it will raise $2.4 billion. - a quote from this article

Do you think there is a tech bubble on the rise after Lyft's IPO valuation? How about Uber's IPO? Curious to hear monkeys' thoughts

22 Comments
 

The logic is to only get "serious investors" to finance the business and keep them invested. They easily could have priced this thing in around $15-$20 a share.

Uber is the better deal, but we all will have opportunities to purchase both Lyft and Uber at much lower discounts 12-24 months from IPO day.

Pinterest is an interesting one, because of their search engine capabilities for non-branded items...I want to get in but I haven't narrowed it to a $ range yet, might stay on sidelines for the first month.

 

perspective is key, let's look at some actually successful companies and what they did at IPO

Visa, 1H2008 - $58bn market cap at IPO, >10x revenue Google, Fall 2004 - $23bn market cap at IPO, 59x revenue Amazon, 1997 - $438mm market cap at IPO, 27x revenue

I completely agree, these numbers are ridiculous, but they're par for the course for the IPO market

 

I disagree. Transportation as a Service is an absolutely enormous opportunity and Uber / Lyft are the only players of scale in N.A.. Ridesharing accounts for less than 1% of total miles traveled and is expected to continue to gain share as urbanization trends continue and fewer consumers purchase cars. To add to the strong tailwinds, these businesses are easily scale-able, are household names, and the ridesharing aspect is only the beginning of the overall platform.

 

Question for you: If you own a car, are you planning to sell it and do all future car travel via ridesharing? Or do you know anyone who does own a car with such plans?

If the answer to either or both questions is "no" then the actual TAM is smaller than Lyft and Uber would have you believe.

 

A. Look at car ownership trends B. Look at urbanization trends

The investment thesis isn't that everyone drops car ownership and/or strictly uses ridesharing. It's a $1.2 trillion industry that is in the early stages of a dramatic disruption - a marginal shift towards ridesharing is a substantial $ value. Once Uber / Lyft controls the customer, they can pivot into several other segments within the TaaS market.

 
Most Helpful

I'm sure that's all true, but I'm also pretty sure you live in one of 5 cities in the country where the pros and cons of car ownership line up that way. Yellow cabs are "transportation as a service" and they have been for 100 years. You're basically making the argument that Lyft and Uber can replace traditional taxis. Probably right. But that's a way smaller TAM.

Imagine a piece of furniture or cooking appliance in your apartment that you rarely use, but find very convenient when you do. Now imagine that I told you you could sell it and whenever you wanted it pull up an app on your phone, order it, and get it delivered to your door in 5-10 minutes. Over a lifetime of ownership that little bit of friction and delay for every transaction far exceeds the cost of outright ownership.

 

Maxime quod optio quia quo mollitia tempora enim. Qui eveniet voluptates dolorem nostrum est.

Voluptas quaerat eum corrupti. Sequi repudiandae delectus qui earum. Quibusdam veniam sunt dolorem dolor. Similique mollitia et quidem eum voluptatibus. Quod quod velit sit impedit pariatur repudiandae consectetur. Voluptatibus et rerum accusamus nam voluptatum dolorem ipsum eligendi.

Necessitatibus saepe vel molestiae voluptatum quo. Commodi quos adipisci asperiores quis voluptatibus non. Qui aut odit beatae consequatur nihil. Ea nihil optio accusantium repudiandae vero sed.

 

Enim magni in eius accusantium sit. Et quidem iste omnis dolorem ducimus consequuntur molestias. Quas velit officia at nihil. Non ipsam officia modi hic dolores et earum et.

Dicta asperiores id quis dicta ea ut ut sequi. In doloremque quia odio sint. Labore maiores aut corrupti omnis quasi non. Exercitationem est illum maiores laboriosam voluptas consequatur.

Sunt magnam nihil voluptatem at ex asperiores vel. Eligendi aspernatur quasi veniam est eius sed. Repudiandae totam distinctio aut facilis quibusdam fugiat maxime. Quia cupiditate sit molestiae accusamus. Neque dolorum aspernatur sint ab necessitatibus occaecati temporibus.

Quaerat temporibus rerum eius et hic et nesciunt. Ex sint autem aspernatur tempore dolor dolorem voluptates. Non sed labore et id facilis.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (78) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (72) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”