SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS Radio) -- Trading began in stock of Lyft Inc. at $87.24 a share Friday morning after the company set an offering price of $72.
Lyft Inc. priced its highly-anticipated initial public offering at $72 a share Thursday in a move that will raise at least $2.34 billion for the ride-hailing company.
The stock is being traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol LYFT.
The stock sale gave Lyft a market capitalization approaching $30 billion. Its rival Uber is widely expected to launch its own IPO within the next few weeks, pitching a deal that could value Uber at more than five times Lyft's value.
Both companies are bleeding red ink. In its prospectus ahead of the IPO, Lyft revealed 2018 losses of nearly $1 billion.
But investors seem eager to grab a stake in a company they see as a disruptive force in a changing transportation marketplace.
The deal will generate windfalls for Lyft investors and founders. Co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while retaining special rights that give them 49 percent of the company's voting rights while owning less than 5 percent of all shares.