UPDATED 22:53 EDT / APRIL 18 2019

EMERGING TECH

Bad to worse: Investors sue Lyft following dismal post-IPO performance

Lyft Inc.’s year just went from bad to worse, with the ride-hailing company being sued by investors for misrepresenting its market position when it went public March 28.

In possibly a harbinger of what to expect of Uber Technologies Inc.’s coming initial public offering, Lyft popped on day one but dropped below its float price on its second day of trading.

Despite allegations of market manipulation, Lyft has never fully recovered and was trading at $58.36 at the close of trading Thursday, down 19% from its debut price of $72 per share.

Suffice it to say, investors are highly unimpressed with Lyft’s share price performance. Two separate class-action complaints against Lyft, as well as its officers, directors and underwriters, have been lodged in San Francisco state courts.

According to Bloomberg, the investors claim that Lyft exaggerated in its prospectus when it claimed that its U.S. market share was 39% as well as intentionally failing to disclose issues with its bike sharing division.

The latter refers to the April 15 recall of thousands of Lyft electric bikes because of issues with braking. The braking issue relates to reports from Lyft bike users claiming that the front brakes on the bikes lock up abruptly. It’s not clear how widespread the problem is, but it’s claimed that “dozens” of riders have been injured due to the fault in Lyft’s bikes.

Lyft’s bike sharing division, which trades under different names in each market it operates in, came about after the company acquired Motivate International Inc. for $250 million in July.

Although Lyft’s performance since going public has been disappointing for investors, it hasn’t been all doom and gloom on the IPO front.

Both Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Pinterest Inc. went public earlier today and found willing investors, popping 82% and 28%, respectively.

They’re very much different companies from Lyft, but the big pops do prove that investors do have faith in tech in companies they deem to have reasonable prospects.

Photo: Dino Kužnik/Wikimedia Commons

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