Uber sees disappointing entry into Wall Street as shares fall by more than 7% on their first day

Over the last couple of years Uber has been attempting to rebuild its somewhat tarnished reputation in the run-up to the launch of its IPO.

Despite the concerted efforts to repair the damage, there was a lukewarm response to Ubers IPO launch on Wall Street.

Uber's shares fell by more than 7% on its first day of trading, opening at $42 a share, $3 below its IPO price of $45, and ended the day at an even lower $41.57.

Uber's performance puts them amongst a very select group of companies who have finished in the red on their first day on Wall Street after launching an IPO

Although Uber succeeded in raising $8.1 billion, that amount was still at the lower end of what Uber hoped to originally raise. 

Uber have become the benchmark to which a generation of technology startups look toward, and despite a huge amount of money being invested into the company, they have suffered unprecedented losses, which has made Wall Street very nervous.

With Lyft languishing on the stock market since launching their IPO back in March, currently sitting 25% below they're initial IPO price, things don't necessarily look particularly rosy for Uber, as it subsidises the cost of rides and invests in a number of other transportation options.

Uber has, all but,  pitched itself as an "Amazon for transportation" offering a wide range of services, including meal deliveries and freight shipping. However, Amazon lost money for years while investing to build a massive business. Now, it makes billions in profit each quarter.

In June 2017 Uber replaced Travis Kalanick with Dara Khosrowshahi, who previously ran Expedia. Khosrowshahi maintained that Uber had to change.  

Since then, he has revamped the company, making key changes at executive level, as well as resolving some of the outstanding crises within the company. He also re-evaluated the wisdom of Uber's global strategy.

According to  CNN Business it wasn't that long ago that Uber were hoping for Lyft to fail, however, with Lyfts poor performance on the stock market being highly apparent, Uber may have become a victim of their rivals failure. 

Image Source: Flickr