AKU-2021-017

AKU Photo Archive (after Saul Leiter)

Initial Public Offering: Uber, May 10, 2019

2019

C-print, diasec mounted

120 × 180 cm (Edition 2/5)

Acquisition

Purchased, 2021

Curator’s Note

Uber priced at $45 per share on May 9, 2019 — a valuation of $82.4 billion, significantly below the $120 billion figure cited by bankers eighteen months earlier. The stock fell 7.6% on its first day, the worst performance for a major U.S. IPO in over a decade. The photograph captures the trading floor at approximately 2:15 p.m., roughly three hours before the closing bell.

Exhibition

IPO: The Stock Market Listing as Spectacle