Fitbit IPO exceeds estimates
NEW YORK – Fitbit flexed some muscle Thursday and its shares rocketed almost 50 percent higher in the first day of trading for the fitness tracking gear maker.
Fitbit’s initial public offering priced at $20 per share, bringing in more than $730 million and valuing Fitbit at about $4.1 billion in total. The company had already raised its stock price expectations this week and said the IPO would include additional shares, but the offering still surpassed its estimates.
The company makes devices that can be worn on the wrist or clipped to clothing. They track steps taken, calories burned and other data and can be synced up with smartphones. Fitbit also sells a Wi-Fi enabled scale that tracks body mass and other data.
The San Francisco company’s shares jumped $9.68 to $29.68 Thursday. The stock is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIT.”
Claimant must pay legal fees
SAN FRANCISCO – The woman who lost her high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against a Silicon Valley venture capital firm has been ordered to pay her former employers $275,000 in legal fees.
A San Francisco judge on Thursday ordered Ellen Pao to reimburse Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for the cost of expert witnesses who testified at trial on behalf of the firm.
A jury in March found that Kleiner Perkins did not discriminate or retaliate against Pao when it fired her in 2012.
Pao plans to appeal the verdict.
Ride service settles NY suit
NEW YORK – Lyft, the ride-hailing service, will pay $300,000 to settle allegations that it violated New York laws.
The New York attorney general’s office sued Lyft last summer for operating in the state without requiring its drivers to have commercial licenses or proper insurance. As part of the settlement, Lyft has agreed to follow vehicle-for-hire laws in the state, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office said Thursday.
Lyft said in a statement Thursday that the settlement was part of its efforts to bring “peer-to-peer ride sharing to New York state at large.”
YouTube starts news feed
SAN FRANCISCO – YouTube has started a video news service to showcase the most interesting clips recorded and posted by eyewitnesses at events unfolding around the world.
The service, called “YouTube Newswire,” is being compiled by Storyful, an Internet service owned by News Corp. that also recently started to package interesting stories posted on social networking leader Facebook.
YouTube is trying to make it easier to find the most compelling news clips amid the 300 hours of video posted on its site each minute.
School offers lane for texting
SALT LAKE CITY – One Utah university is giving students glued to their cellphones a place to call their own: a designated lane for texting while walking.
The neon green lanes painted on the stairs to the gym at Utah Valley University were intended as a lighthearted way to brighten up the space and get students’ attention, spokeswoman Melinda Colton said Thursday.
And it worked. A picture of the lanes – which divide the stairs into sections for runners, walkers and texters – created widespread buzz on social media this month after it was posted online.
Though the lanes are limited to the school’s recreation center, 22-year-old student Tasia Briggs wouldn’t mind seeing them catch on across campus.
“There’s nothing worse than walking behind someone who’s texting, and you can’t get around them and go anywhere,” Briggs said.