Uber and Lyft Show What’s Wrong With the IPO Market

The impending initial public offering of Uber Technologies Inc. promises to be a monumental event in more ways than one. If all goes as planned, investors — including Uber drivers and fund managers acting on behalf of pensioners and other regular folk — will give the ride-hailing company as much as $9 billion with astonishingly little clue about what they’re getting in return.

This isn’t how the stock market was supposed to work. To restore some discipline, regulators must redefine the rules of the road.