Uber Technologies Inc. filed paperwork confidentially this week for its initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, as it races with smaller rival Lyft Inc. to be the first to market. 
 
 The S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission puts Uber neck-and-neck with Lyft. Both planned IPOs are shaping up to be among the biggest in a spate of offerings aimed for 2019. Lyft said Thursday it had filed its S-1, and people familiar with the matter have said it is aiming to debut in March or April. 
 
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– Ride-hailing giant Uber has filed confidential preliminary paperwork for selling stock to the public, the AP reports. That's according to a report late Friday in the Wall Street Journal. Citing people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify, the Journal says San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc. filed the paperwork earlier this week. That would indicate it could go public within the first three months of next year. Uber declined to comment on the Journal report. Uber's advisers have suggested the company could get a valuation of $120 billion; its latest valuation was $76 billion when it sold about a $500 million stake to Toyota in August. The filing would come on the heels of a similar move by Uber's smaller rival Lyft. The two initial public offerings could raise billions for the two companies to fuel their expansions, while giving investors their first chance to buy stakes in the ride-hailing phenomenon. (One report says 30% of Uber and Lyft drivers actually lose money driving.)