Uber files for its IPO

Uber plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol UBER.

We're still a couple of weeks away from getting formal word on share price, but reports are that it plans to seek an initial market valuation of between $90 billion and $100 billion.

• If it were to hit that top mark, it would become the 30th most valuable company listed on a U.S. exchange, topping such names as ConocoPhillips and General Electric. It also would be larger than the two Wall Street banks leading its IPO, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
• There had been talk last year of a $120 billion valuation expectation, but that was coming from bankers trying to win the deal. It was as much a reflection of boisterous salesmanship as it was of Uber's public prospects.
• Lyft shares closed today at $61.01, up 1.48% on the day but down over 15% from its IPO price. Lyft's current market cap is around $20.6 billion.

By the numbers:

• Uber generated $11.27 billion in 2018 revenue, up 42% from 2017 and 193% from 2016.
• $9.2 billion of that 2018 revenue came from ride-share. Uber Eats generated $757 million, while Uber Freight did $125 million in just the fourth quarter.
• It was technically profitable in 2018 thanks to divestitures of its Russia and Southeast Asia operations, but had an operating loss of around $3 billion.
• It had of $6.4 billion cash on hand as of year-end, and $6.9 billion of long-term debt.
• There are a total of 29 banks listed on the IPO, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman.
• CEO Dara Khosrowshahi last year earned a base salary of $1 million, plus a $2 million bonus and around $40 million in stock awards.
• Uber reports a 15.4% ownership stake in Chinese ride-hail rival Didi Chuxing, a 23.2% stake in Southeast Asia's Grab and a 38% stake in Russia's Yandex Taxi venture. These holdings largely prevent Uber from competing in those markets for the next four years (or six years, in the case of Russia).
• Its largest outside shareholder is SoftBank with a 16.3% stake. Other major shareholders include Benchmark (11%), Expa (6%), Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (5.3%), and Alphabet (5.2%). Former CEO Travis Kalanick has an 8.6% position.
• Uber will provide qualifying drivers with cash rewards of between $2,500 and $10,000, based primarily on the number of trips driven. Qualifying U.S. drivers also will have the option to buy a limited number of shares in the IPO, without lock-up restrictions.

Risk factors

Uber acknowledges that successful efforts to reclassify its drivers as employees, as opposed to contractors, "would have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition."

• It also has concerns about another spate of bad press like it received in 2017, when a controversy related to President Trump's travel ban caused "hundreds of thousands" of Uber users to stop using the platform.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker