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Uber priced its IPO at $45 per share Thursday, at the low end of its stated range. At the IPO price of $45 per share, the company will be valued on a non-diluted basis at about $75.46 billion, which will put the stock’s market cap right around the size of Caterpillar’s and make it one of the most valuable companies ever to go public. In 2018, Uber’s revenue reached $11.3 billion for the year, up 43% from 2017, while reporting adjusted losses of $1.8 billion, an improvement over losses of $2.6 billion in 2017, according to its IPO filing. The company has never turned a profit.
In the strongest market debut so far this year, Beyond Meat shares surged 163% Thursday, giving the maker of plant-based meat substitutes a market value of $3.77 billion. On Wednesday night, Beyond priced its initial public offering at $25 per share, for an implied market value of $1.46 billion. Beyond’s meat alternatives, which range from fake ground beef to burger patties, are designed to more closely mimic the texture and taste of traditional meat.
Apple and Qualcomm have settled their royalty dispute, the companies announced in a press release. The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm as well as a chipset supply agreement, suggesting that Apple will buy Qualcomm chips for future iPhones. Qualcomm stock rose more than 20% after the news broke, boosting its market cap by about $14.5 billion to more than $84 billion.
Uber released its long-awaited IPO prospectus. The company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “UBER.” The filing comes about two weeks after rival Lyft debuted on the public markets. The two ride-hailing companies had been racing toward the public markets practically in tandem, though Uber’s offering is likely to be significantly larger, and one of the largest offerings this year. The company was previously reported to be seeking a valuation of up to $120 billion.
Tokyo prosecutors arrested Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn on Thursday for a fourth time, on fresh allegations that cut short his brief time outside detention. The prosecutors defended the move, saying the latest allegations are a new case requiring precautions to prevent Ghosn from destroying evidence. They allege $5 million in funds sent by a Nissan subsidiary to an overseas dealership were diverted to a company controlled by Ghosn. He had been released on bail just a month earlier.
The fast-food company said Monday that it’s testing a soy-based meat patty, dubbed the “Impossible Whopper,” in 59 restaurants in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Burger King is developing the meatless patty with Impossible Foods, a California-based producer of plant-based substitutes whose meatless burgers are served by chains Red Robin and White Castle, along with more than 5,000 restaurants nationwide. The company, founded in 2011 by Stanford biochemistry professor Patrick Brown, uses “heme,” an iron-rich molecule in animal protein, to mimic the flavor of meat.
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank confirmed on Sunday they were in talks about a merger, prompting labor union concerns about possible job losses and questions from analysts about the merits of a combination. Germany’s two largest banks issued short statements following separate meetings of their management boards, a person with knowledge of the matter said, indicating a quickening of pace in the merger process, although both also warned that a deal was far from certain.
Spotify has filed a complaint with European regulators arguing that Apple limits choice and competition in its app store, giving its own music streaming service an unfair advantage over rivals. Apple’s app store is an important distribution platform for Spotify. But Apple takes a 30% commission on all sales made through the app store – including music streaming subscriptions – which Spotify and many other third-party app developers have long complained is an unfair “tax”.
At age 21, the reality TV star and makeup guru Kylie Jenner is the world’s youngest billionaire, according to Forbes. The magazine on Tuesday released its annual ranking of the planet’s richest people for 2019, announcing that Jenner not only made the billionaires’ list for the first time but is the world’s youngest billionaire as well as the “youngest self-made billionaire of all time.” Forbes credited Jenner’s billionaire status to the success of her makeup company, Kylie Cosmetics, which she founded in 2015 with the sale of the wildly popular lip kits — a set which included liquid lipsticks and matching lip liner.
Gap Inc. plans to separate into two publicly traded companies, spinning off Old Navy into a separate firm as it closes about 230 Gap stores over the next two years. As Old Navy becomes its own company, the other company, which has not been named yet, will consist of the Gap brand, Athleta, Banana Republic, Intermix and Hill City, Gap Inc. said. The moves announced Thursday are the latest signs of turmoil in the retail industry, as Sears and other chains struggle to stay afloat.