Uber had the worst first-day dollar loss ever of any US IPO

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at the New York Stock Exchange on May 9 for Uber's initial public offering.

• Uber started trading on Friday in an initial public offering that valued the company at $75.5 billion.
• By the end of day Friday, the stock was trading down 6.7% off the $45 a share, where the company had priced on Thursday night.
• With a cumulative loss of $655 million, it's the worst first-day dollar loss of a US IPO.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The much-anticipated Uber initial public offering managed to break a record, but not one that investors would've hoped for.

The stock closed down 6.7% on its opening day to $41.70, down from the $45 a share the company priced at on Thursday night ahead of the IPO that had valued the company at $75.5 billion.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

In total, the discount off the IPO price meant that investors who got in at that price saw a cumulative loss of $655 million. By the end of day Friday, Uber had a market cap of $69.7 billion, far below the $120 billion valuation figure bankers had suggested in 2018.

Read more: 3 reasons why Uber had such a 'weird' and terrible IPO, according to a portfolio manager who wouldn't buy the stock

That made it the biggest first-day dollar loss of a US IPO, Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business told Business Insider. Ritter's figures accounted for IPOs from 1975 on.

Percentage-wise, other IPOs have suffered far worse opening day closes. Ritter said on a percentage basis, Uber's first day ranks as the 99th worst open for IPOs raising more than $100 million. It's the combination of the drop and the size of the IPO in the first place that makes it the biggest first-day dollar loss.

Prior to Friday, the largest first-day dollar loss of a US IPO was in 2000 when Genuity, an internet company spun out of Verizon, went public. On its first day, Wall Street Journal reporter Rolfe Winkler noted, Genuity had lost $233 million. That makes Uber's first-day dollar losses almost three times as much.

Read more: Sure, Uber didn't leave any money on the table, but its IPO was nothing to celebrate and it could haunt the company and its execs for years to come

Uber's IPO came during a particularly turbulent week as tensions elevated between the US and China. The timing may have cost the company billions.

Alexei Oreskovic contributed reporting.

• Read more about Uber's IPO:
• The woman who rang Uber's IPO bell is Austin Geidt, whose life is the stuff of Valley legend
• Actress Olivia Munn made a savvy Uber investment in 2011 but was roasted for a now deleted tweet about it people called 'tone deaf'
• Uber blew as much as $3.2 billion on advertising alone in 2018 on its way to one of the biggest US IPOs on record
• Here's who's getting rich on Uber's massive IPO