Uber gives Nasdaq cold shoulder as it chooses NYSE for $120bn listing
Uber has chosen to make its giant market debut on the New York Stock Exchange, with the transport app expected to be valued at up to $120bn (£91bn).
The company is opting for NYSE over the Nasdaq exchange where the majority of major US tech stocks such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are listed.
The NYSE has made a concerted effort to attract technology companies in recent years, capitalising on Facebook’s botched Nasdaq listing in 2012 in which orders were cancelled due to a computer glitch, and has attracted the likes of Alibaba, Twitter and Snap.
The move will differentiate Uber from its US rival Lyft, which is expected to go public on the Nasdaq at the end of next week.
Uber’s flotation, expected in mid-April, is expected to be the biggest this year and one of the largest ever. Appetite for the listings is expected to be strong despite prospective investors having to accept heavy losses for the foreseeable future.
Uber lost $865m and reported slowing revenue in the final quarter of 2018, while Lyft lost $911m in all of last year.
The two listings are amongst the most high profile of a stampede of tech companies preparing to go public this year including Airbnb, Pinterest and Slack. These so-called “unicorns” have waited longer than is traditional to make their way to public stock exchanges, instead relying on billions in private equity capital to fund their growth.
Under chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi Uber has pushed into areas such as food delivery, bike hire and car rental as it seeks to position itself as a company that provides the digital infrastructure for transport, instead of merely a taxi-hailing app.
Its previous chief and founder Travis Kalanick had bet heavily on driverless cars but the project was thrown into crisis last year when one of its test vehicles killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
Uber's decision was first reported by Bloomberg.
