Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Uber Eyes Valuation of $120 Billion for Possible 2019 IPO


Oh yeah, this is what happens when you take on local regulators and win!


Uber Technologies Inc. recently received proposals from Wall Street banks valuing the ride-hailing company at as much as $120 billion in an initial public offering that could take place early next year, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley last month delivered the valuation proposals to Uber, according to the paper.

Uber expects to generate between $10 billion and $11 billion in revenue this year, according to the documents, compared with $7.78 billion last year.

According to the Journal, as part of an agreement with investor SoftBank Group Corp, Uber must go public by the end of next year. If it fails to do so, Uber would have to allow certain investors—those who have put in at least $100 million or held shares for at least five years—to sell their shares on the secondary market.

Yes, I do admit that the Fed's money printing does help with the valuation.

-RW 

5 comments:

  1. They did not "take on" they simply broke the law. YOu could do it and it might work out well, or you could end up in jail.

    First, All consumer car insurance in the country excludes using your car for hire. When people drove for Uber they were uninsured. If Uber had arranged some sort of umbrella policy to cover its drivers when their own insurance was void, it never issued insurance ID cards identifying the company to drivers. I wager early Uber drivers simply made a claim on their consumer insurance if in an accident while driving for hire and never told their insurance company what they were doing. A gigantic fraud.

    Second, localities regulate drivers for hire, some require pictures of the driver with his name in the car, others limit the number of hours a driver can work without rest, others require a special driver's license, some require clear disclosure of fees, others regulate fees. Uber ignored all these laws. It is easy to win in a competition when your competitors are hobbled and you ignore the legal restrictions applicable to you.

    I love Uber and use it, but I don't like how they induced drivers to defraud their insurance companies and got rich doing it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @douglas

      If this represented some kind of huge problem for the insurance companies, then why didn't they apparently try to detect Uber drivers and drop or upcharge them?

      If they were simply relying on the police to serve as their fraud detection arm, that's on them, no?

      Delete
  2. Uber could have been and could be crushed at any moment by the whim of government. The reason it has not been is because in some form or fashion it furthers what those with the real power and or influence want. The taxi cartel is ancient and likely its most powerful champions long dead.

    Douglas lists some of the bigger items that could be used to crush Uber. However it wouldn't even take much to crush Uber and its kin. Simply have cops selectively enforce the vehicle code to the letter on every vehicle so marked.

    Uber exists because it is somehow desired to exist by the powers that be. If you or I tried it we would have been immediately crushed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Jimmy Joe Meeker

      According to some, we commit an average of 3 felonies per day, so most of us could potentially be in jail. I don't think it's helpful to cast suspicion on someone just because they've managed to escape predation at the hands of the state.

      Delete
  3. Actually I think it got popular while operating under the radar. There were no ads, the cars were unmarked at first. Word of mouth and referrals got their customers. After it got popular it would be impossible for governments to shut it down. The voters liked it too much. It helped that the taxi industry was protected buy monopoly grants so never improved service (calling cars by smartphone for example)and that made Uber so much better than legal cabs.

    ReplyDelete