Lyft has filed with Security and Exchange Commission on Friday to register its initial public offering. This details a plethora of potential threats to their business which reveals all the legal and political uncertainties for the ride hailing apps. After asking forgiveness for years rather than the permission to expand across the country, these popular companies are still dealing with the rapidly challenging shift regulations and laws.
There are still so many questions about how Lyft will classify its drivers under the labor laws or how the new data privacy laws will impact the business.
Lyft could be the first and biggest IPO in the year of 2019 and some other companies like Airbnb and Uber will come following it. These Silicon Valley startups are going to make their public market debut this year.
For some years, only the private people were eligible to invest in these companies. But now as they will be made public, the public investors will get a chance to invest in them. This is the first time these companies will be exposed to the regulatory risks that comes with the IPO.
Lyft’s IPO is like a test which will prove whether the public are interested in taking such risks or not. If these factors will affect the initial trading of the company, it will have some major implications on the Uber and some other on-demand companies which are also planning to go public this year.
The company said in Friday filing that it is bound to so many rules and regulations and so many of them are still in evolving phase. Failing to comply with these laws and regulations can completely harm the business, results of operations and financial conditions. There are certain risks that the investors will be taking with their investment in Lyft. It has to be observe whether they are ready or not.
