Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn sold his roughly 2.7% stake in Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) before the ride-sharing company’s monster IPO on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Icahn’s stake was worth about $550 million at the IPO price. Jonathan Christodoro, a former managing director of Icahn Capital LP who sat on Lyft’s board until March, linked Icahn with the buyer, according to WSJ, citing people familiar with the deal. The buyer’s identity was not identified.
The exact price was also unknown, but Icahn certainly made money on his investment. He held the investment for four years, per WSJ, after investing $100 million in the San Francisco-based company in 2015 when the company was valued at $2.5 billion. The 83-year-old later added an additional $50 million at the same valuation.
When it went public, Lyft was valued at $24 billion, $72 per share. It opened Friday at $87.24, before falling nearly 20% over the next three days.
Investors who held a stake in Lyft before the IPO are prohibited from selling shares until 180 days afterward, according to the Wall Street Journal. That includes Icahn’s unidentified buyer.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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