The ridesharing giant’s IPO was expected to be the biggest in tech history. Yet, even with Uber pricing its shares toward the bottom of its target range at $45, the stock ended its first day of trading down 7.6 percent at $41.57. Khosrowshahi believes the United States’ escalating trade tensions with China had a direct impact on the stock’s performance.
“The timing of our IPO was very much aligned with our president’s tariff wars, the same day,” said Khosrowshahi, according to Reuters. “So, I think we got caught up a bit in the market swirl, and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
Uber shares fell as low as $36.08, but made a rebound to trade at $42.21 on Tuesday (June 11), down 0.9 percent on the day.
Employees “have a six-month lockup, so nobody in the company cares anyway what the stock prices [are] now — it’s a bunch of traders,” said Khosrowshahi. “It doesn’t really affect us. … We work on building a great enterprise — the market will take care of itself.”
In addition, regulatory filings revealed that Khosrowshahi has the option to buy up to 750,000 of its shares, which can be exercised at $33.65 per share — well below the set IPO price. The ridesharing giant initially granted the options in September 2017, with a price of $41.65 per share. However, that was modified on May 8, 2018.
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An Uber spokesman said the change was made to shorten the timeline (seven years, down from 10 years), “in conjunction with a bonus plan, dependent on the company being acquired for or trading at $120 billion.” Uber was valued at $82.4 billion when it went public.
“I believe in performance-based pay,” said Khosrowshahi when asked about his compensation. “If I do very well for shareholders, … that’s a circumstance where I want to be rewarded.”
