10 big things: Lyft reveals losses to Wall Street

One of the most talked-about confidential documents in Silicon Valley has at last come to light, as Lyft made public on Friday the IPO prospectus it had confidentially filed with the SEC back in December. That's one of 10 things you need to know from the past week:  1. Lyft's losses loom with S-1 release The timing of the S-1 form's release seems to line up with earlier reports that Lyft will begin an IPO roadshow in about two weeks and go public in late March or early April.

That listing will occur on the NASDAQ under the LYFT ticker symbol, per the SEC filing. And it will come for a company that, like its main rival Uber, is still losing large amounts of money, despite pulling in billions in revenue. Between 2016 and 2018, Lyft's annual revenue jumped from $343 million to $1.1 billion to $2.2 billion, while its annual net loss grew over the same span from $683 million to $688 million to $911 million.
  Who knew $2.2 billion in revenue could vanish so quickly?
Investors have been willing to funnel billions of VC dollars into Lyft (giving the company a $15.1 billion valuation in the process) because they believe those losses will eventually evaporate. However, the filing spends in the neighborhood of 25,000 words outlining the various risk factors associated with Lyft's offering—not necessarily unusual for an S-1 filing, but perhaps more eyebrow-raising because of the fact that so many variables still exist.

One line that seemed to succinctly describe the company's gamble: "Our success will depend to a substantial extent on the willingness of people to widely-adopt (sic) ridesharing and our other offerings." If ridehailing, bikesharing and e-scooters don't catch on like investors think they will, Lyft's future as a publicly traded company will be no sure thing. 2. $25B in new funds Rising private equity power Genstar Capital brought in a total of $7 billion for new funds this week, leading an industry-wide charge to restock stores of dry powder. Siris Capital Group closed its fourth flagship PE fund on $3.45 billion, Trilantic North America topped $2.5 billion for a buyout fund and SK Capital's latest effort hit $2.1 billion. Looking forward, news emerged this week that Stone Point Capital has set a $6.5 billion goal for its latest PE vehicle, while NEA is seeking $3.6 billion for its staggering 17th flagship fund—a PE-sized amount for a VC vehicle. 3. More unicorn IPOs Lyft isn't the only one with a pricey listing looming. Reports emerged this week that in-home cycling startup Peloton hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase for an offering that could be worth $8 billion, while China's Luckin Coffee—a would-be rival to Starbucks in the country—reportedly chose Credit Suisse, Goldman and Morgan Stanley to lead a US IPO also slated for this year. 4. Media makeovers A long time—a really, really long time—after the deal was first announced, AT&T seems to have finally cleared the final hurdle on its merger with Time Warner (now known as WarnerMedia), as a US federal appeals court turned down a last-ditch appeal from the Department of Justice to block an $85.4 billion deal that's set to reshape the global media landscape. Shortly thereafter, reports emerged that AT&T is discussing a sale of its 10% stake in streaming service Hulu to Disney. The stake, which AT&T acquired as part of the WarnerMedia deal, could reportedly be worth $930 million, valuing the entire Hulu operation at $9.3 billion.
  Can you stream Hulu on a TV with rabbit ears? 5. Chinese billions AI chipmaker Horizon Robotics got a minor frenzy of Chinese VC going when it raised $600 million in new funding this week. The next day, Beijing-based car seller Chehaoduo lined up $1.5 billion in new backing from the SoftBank Vision Fund, and on Friday a Chinese housing startup called Danke Apartment collected $500 million in new cash at a reported unicorn valuation. 6. Old Navy goes solo Retail goliath Gap announced plans this week to split off its Old Navy subsidiary into its own company. And investors were into the idea. Like, extremely into it. Stock in Gap (NYSE: GAP) shot up more than 18% on Friday into the range of $30 per share, its highest point in nearly six months. That gave Gap a market cap of about $11.3 billion; analysts estimate that Old Navy could have a market cap on its own of some $10 billion. 7. AAF drama envelops a VC star Was Keith Rabois part of a conspiracy to steal the idea for a new VC-backed pro football league? That's one of the allegations mounted in a new lawsuit that emerged this week involving the Alliance of American Football, a fledgling league that's already encountered more than its fair share of headlines. We've got much more on the suit. 8. KKR keeps busy KKR's biggest news of the week may have been reports that the buyout powerhouse is competing with Tencent to buy a major stake in Universal Music in a deal potentially worth well over $20 billion. But it stayed active on other fronts, too. The firm is planning to sell off its entire remaining stake in GoDaddy, the remnant of a 2015 IPO, and KKR also announced deals this week to invest in security startup KnowBe4 and to acquire European companies Exact Software and Universum Film. 9. Talk dirty to me In the world of VC, podcasts are hot. So it would only make sense that investors are also into podcast-type products that are trying to be, uh, a different kind of hot. Enter Dipsea, a new startup that announced $5.5 million in funding this week to continue creating "sexy audio stories"—what basically seems to be short-form erotica, with an emphasis on catering to a female clientele. The round valued the business at $17 million. 10. Thoma Bravo time What's already been a frenetic year for the high-profile tech investor continued this week. First, Thoma Bravo agreed to purchase business software developer ConnectWise for a reported $1.5 billion. A day later, the firm announced a deal to add on energy measurement business Coastal Flow to its Quorum Software platform; Thoma Bravo bought Quorum last year in a $740 million move.