Citi Bike is on the market

Lyft is exploring a sale of its bike and scooter enterprise, which incorporates New York Metropolis’s fashionable Citi Bike. The information comes a number of months after the struggling ridehail firm laid off a third of its workforce in an effort to cut back prices.

Lyft has “acquired sturdy inbound curiosity in our bikes and scooters enterprise,” the corporate mentioned in a press release. “It’s solely logical for Lyft to take heed to credible proposals and discover strategic companions and choices in a number of types to serve extra riders in additional cities.”

Whether or not Lyft strikes a partnership with an investor that infuses money into the division or sells the enterprise outright stays to be seen. Both method, Lyft needs the rental bikes and scooters to proceed to be listed on its app so riders aren’t disrupted, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2018, Lyft acquired Motivate, the biggest bikeshare operator in North America, for a reported $250 million. On the time, freestanding, or dockless, bikes and scooters have been beginning to crop up in cities throughout the nation. However Lyft determined that docked techniques — bikes that may very well be locked and unlocked from mounted docking stations — have been the savvier transfer. Cities have been cracking down on dockless operators partly as a result of they competed with preexisting bike share applications.

Lyft continued to spend cash on bikes and scooters, buying PBSC City Options, a bikeshare tools firm that provides docks and bikes for 45 techniques globally, in 2022.

However Citi Bike was the crown jewel of Lyft’s bike belongings. Greater than 114,000 individuals rode Citi Bike every day in June 2023. The system reported greater than $14 million in income, together with over $4 million in membership charges and greater than $350,000 in sponsorship cash.

And the recognition of Citi Bike continues to develop, with the system reporting a 33 % year-over-year enhance in ridership thus far in 2023. The blue bikes have develop into fashionable fixtures within the metropolis’s psychic panorama, featuring prominently in TV and film and changing into a fascinating and sought-after inclusion in any neighborhood.

However Lyft’s monetary scenario has darkened significantly this yr. Its inventory worth has plummeted because it continues to lose market share to Uber and shed employees. The corporate’s founders, Logan Inexperienced and John Zimmer, stepped down from their government roles earlier this yr. The brand new CEO, David Risher, instantly fired over 1,000 workers after entering into the position. He has rankled the remaining employees with return-to-office necessities and tacky company slogans throughout conferences, the Journal reviews.

Citi Bike, with its unique, multiyear contract with the town of New York, is more likely to do nice in a sale. However smaller techniques that don’t usher in as a lot income or can’t lean on the identical kind of exclusivity might not fare as nicely, Curbed wrote earlier this year.