Lyft’s IPO Lessons

Lyft’s dramatic drop through its IPO price on its second day of trading on Monday sparked a lot of chatter about Lyft’s offering and the stock’s unusual short-selling-related trading patterns. The shares recovered by Friday, finishing the week above $74, so the immediate impact of the short-selling appears to have passed.

But it raised some broader questions about the tech IPO market that are worth thinking through. Specifically, did the crop of private tech firms that put off going public sow the seeds of IPO havoc? That has significance for the batch of upcoming tech IPOs, most obviously Uber and Pinterest.