$550 Million Deal Unites Talent, Technology
and Geographies to Propel the Industry Forward
Lyft, Inc. (LYFT) announced today that the company has signed an
agreement with Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., (“Woven Planet”), a
subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, for the acquisition of
Lyft’s self-driving vehicle division, Level 5. The transaction also
includes multi-year non-exclusive commercial agreements between
Lyft and Woven Planet to accelerate the development and enhance the
safety of automated driving technology.
“Today’s announcement launches Lyft into the next phase of an
incredible journey to bring our mission to life,” Lyft Co-Founder
and CEO Logan Green said. “Lyft has spent nine years building a
transportation network that is uniquely capable of scaling AVs.
This partnership between Woven Planet and Lyft represents a major
step forward for autonomous vehicle technology.”
“This acquisition assembles a dream team of world-class
engineers and scientists to deliver safe mobility technology for
the world,” James Kuffner, CEO of Woven Planet said. “The Woven
Planet team, alongside the team of researchers at Toyota Research
Institute, have already established a center of excellence for
software development, automated driving, and advanced safety
technology within the Toyota Group. I am absolutely thrilled to
welcome Level 5’s world-class engineers and experts into our
company, which will greatly strengthen our efforts.”
The Level 5 team will join Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota
dedicated to developing autonomous driving and other advanced
mobility technologies. In addition to the acquisition of Level 5,
Woven Planet and Lyft have signed commercial agreements for the
utilization of Lyft system and fleet data to accelerate the safety
and commercialization of the automated-driving vehicles that Woven
Planet will develop.
Lyft’s Open Platform team, which focuses on the deployment and
scaling of third-party self-driving technology on the Lyft network,
will become the new Lyft Autonomous team. “We are excited about the
transformative impact AVs will have on our world as we drive toward
a future that is electric, autonomous and shared,” Green said.
“With Lyft Autonomous, we can combine the power of Lyft’s hybrid
network, marketplace engine and fleet management capabilities to
help our AV partners scale deployment with the highest revenue per
mile at the lowest cost per mile. We look forward to continuing to
partner with the best autonomous vehicle companies to bring this
technology to market.”
Lyft will receive, in total, approximately $550 million in cash
with this transaction, with $200 million paid upfront subject to
certain closing adjustments and $350 million of payments over a
five-year period. The transaction is also expected to remove $100
million of annualized non-GAAP operating expenses on a net basis -
primarily from reduced R&D spend - which will accelerate Lyft’s
path to Adjusted EBITDA profitability.
“Not only will this transaction allow Lyft to focus on advancing
our leading Autonomous platform and transportation network, this
partnership will help pull in our profitability timeline,” Lyft
Co-Founder and President John Zimmer said. “Assuming the
transaction closes within the expected timeframe and the COVID
recovery continues, we are confident that we can achieve Adjusted
EBITDA profitability in the third quarter of this year.”
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of
2021, subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and
customary and other closing conditions.
Supplemental Materials
Lyft Autonomous Fact Sheet Lyft Autonomous Investor
Presentation
Webcast
Lyft will host a webcast today at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time (5:30
p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss this transaction. To listen to a live
audio webcast, please visit the Company’s Investor Relations page
at https://investor.lyft.com/. The archived webcast will be
available on the Company’s Investor Relations page shortly after
the call.
About Lyft
Lyft was founded in 2012 and is one of the largest
transportation networks in the United States and Canada. As the
world shifts away from car ownership to
transportation-as-a-service, Lyft is at the forefront of this
massive societal change. Our transportation network brings together
rideshare, bikes, scooters, car rentals and transit all in one app.
We are singularly driven by our mission: to improve people’s lives
with the world’s best transportation.
About Woven Planet Group
At Woven Planet Group, we are on a mission to design a happier
planet through secure, connected mobility solutions. Starting
business in 2021, Woven Planet Group is an expansion of the
operations of Toyota Research Institute - dedicated to bringing its
vision, “Mobility to Love, Safety to Live” to life. Under this
shared goal, our four companies, Woven Planet Holdings, Woven Core,
Woven Alpha and Woven Capital are transforming how people live,
move, and play through new innovations and investment in automated
driving, robotics, smart cities, and more. For more information,
please visit: www.woven-planet.global/
Disclosure Information
Lyft announces material information to the public about Lyft,
its products and services and other matters through a variety of
means, including filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts, the
investor relations section of its website (investor.lyft.com), its
Twitter accounts (@lyft and @Lyft_Comms), and its blogs (including:
lyft.com/blog, lyft.com/hub, eng.lyft.com,
medium.com/lyftself-driving, medium.com/sharing-the-ride-with-lyft
and medium.com/@johnzimmer) in order to achieve broad,
non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for
complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future
events or Lyft’s future financial or operating performance. In some
cases, you can identify forward looking statements because they
contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,”
“anticipates,” “going to,” “could,” “intends,” “target,”
“projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,”
“potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other
similar terms or expressions that concern Lyft’s expectations,
strategy, priorities, plans or intentions. Forward-looking
statements in this press release include, but are not limited to,
statements regarding the proposed transaction with Woven Planet
Holdings, Inc., including the benefits of the transaction and
closing date, as well as the commercial collaboration; autonomous
vehicle technology; Lyft Autonomous, including its capabilities and
Lyft’s autonomous vehicle strategy; and Lyft’s future financial and
operating performance, including its outlook for Adjusted EBITDA
and expectations regarding reduced operating expenses. Lyft’s
expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not
materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those projected. These risks, uncertainties and
other factors relate to, among others, risks and uncertainties
related to the pending transaction and contemplated commercial
collaboration with Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., including the
costs, expenses or difficulties related to the transaction and such
collaboration; the risk that the transaction or the commercial
collaboration may not be completed within the expected timeframe or
at all; failure to realize the expected benefits of the transaction
or the commercial collaboration; the potential impact of the
announcement, pendency or consummation of the transaction or the
commercial collaboration and the agreements of the parties in
connection with the foregoing on relationships with our employees,
customers, suppliers and other business partners; and the
technological development and commercialization of autonomous
driving technologies. The forward-looking statements contained in
this press release are also subject to other risks and
uncertainties, including those more fully described in Lyft’s
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”),
including Lyft’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended December 31, 2020 as filed with the SEC. The forward-looking
statements in this press release are based on information available
to Lyft as of the date hereof, and Lyft disclaims any obligation to
update any forward-looking statements, except as required by
law.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Lyft’s calculation of Adjusted EBITDA loss excludes interest
expense, other income (expense), net, provision for (benefit from)
income taxes, depreciation and amortization, costs related to
acquisitions, stock-based compensation expense, payroll tax expense
related to stock-based compensation, changes to the liabilities for
insurance required by regulatory agencies attributable to
historical periods, restructuring and related charges, and costs
related to the transfer of certain legacy auto insurance
liabilities. We have not provided an outlook for GAAP net income
(loss) or reconciled Adjusted EBITDA guidance to GAAP net income
(loss) because we do not provide guidance on GAAP net income (loss)
or the reconciling items between Adjusted EBITDA and GAAP net
income (loss) as a result of the uncertainty regarding, and the
potential variability of, certain of these reconciling items, such
as stock-based compensation expense. While we expect the
transaction to close in the third quarter of 2021, we are unable to
precisely estimate the date of regulatory approvals and fulfillment
of other closing conditions. To provide investors with a
representative savings datapoint for the third quarter and beyond,
as long as the transaction closes in the third quarter, our
non-GAAP results for Q3 will exclude any potential one-time gains
or losses on the transaction, related transaction expenses and the
expenses of the division being transferred for the full quarter.
Accordingly, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure
guidance to the corresponding GAAP measure is not available without
unreasonable effort.
Lyft records historical changes to liabilities for insurance
required by regulatory agencies for financial reporting purposes in
the quarter of positive or adverse development even though such
development may be related to claims that occurred in prior
periods. For example, if in the first quarter of a given year, the
cost of claims or our estimates for our cost of claims grew by $1
million for claims related to the prior fiscal year or earlier, the
expense would be recorded for GAAP purposes within the first
quarter instead of in the results of the prior period. Lyft
believes these prior period changes to insurance liabilities do not
illustrate the current period performance of Lyft’s ongoing
operations since these prior period changes relate to claims that
could potentially date back years. Lyft has limited ability to
influence the ultimate development of historical claims.
Accordingly, including the prior period changes would not
illustrate the performance of Lyft’s ongoing operations or how the
business is run or managed by Lyft. For consistency, Lyft does not
adjust the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA for any prior period
based on any positive or adverse development that occurs subsequent
to the quarter end. Lyft believes the adjustment to exclude the
historical changes to liabilities for insurance required by
regulatory agencies from Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors by
enabling them to better assess Lyft’s operating performance in the
context of current period results.
Lyft uses Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with GAAP measures as
part of Lyft’s overall assessment of its performance, including the
preparation of Lyft’s annual operating budget and quarterly
forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of Lyft’s business
strategies, and to communicate with Lyft’s board of directors
concerning Lyft’s financial performance. Adjusted EBITDA is a key
performance measure that Lyft’s management uses to assess Lyft’s
operating performance and the operating leverage in Lyft’s
business. Because Adjusted EBITDA facilitates internal comparisons
of our historical operating performance on a more consistent basis,
Lyft uses Adjusted EBITDA for business planning purposes.
Lyft’s definitions may differ from the definitions used by other
companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition,
other companies may not publish these or similar metrics.
Furthermore, these metrics have certain limitations in that they do
not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in
our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run
our business. Thus, Adjusted EBITDA, should be considered in
addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from,
measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210426005814/en/
Lyft Contacts Sonya Banerjee investor@lyft.com
Media press@lyft.com
Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024