Is this abnormal given their size? I remember similar articles about Facebook, Twitter and others.
It is - Twitter lost ~$2 billion over 10 years (http://time.com/4241716/twitter-losses-twtr/). $1.5 billion in a quarter is nuts.
Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
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Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#12Better source, and one that the article references: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/uber-s-th... At this point, two things are clear to me: 1) Uber will IPO, there's just oo much money and influence behind it to stop that. 2) I'd be really worried if I was an employee about my options and also about my job. Employee's now ahve two large worries hanging over their heads..... What about my job and wh…
An IPO would be the best scenario but it is far from certain.
Given the widespread unethical (and probably criminal) activity that was conducted at the highest levels of the company I would say there are even odds that there are some big skeletons in the closet that opening the books would reveal and that is why they have stayed private so long.
Why else would Benchmark and others be running for the exits now? If all the smart money that knows the company best is dumping at a discount it does not paint a pretty picture.
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#13Better source, and one that the article references: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/uber-s-th... At this point, two things are clear to me: 1) Uber will IPO, there's just oo much money and influence behind it to stop that. 2) I'd be really worried if I was an employee about my options and also about my job. Employee's now ahve two large worries hanging over their heads..... What about my job and wh…
I couldn't understand the part about an employee and loosing my job. Are you saying that they won't be able to sell their equity even at a steep discount in 90 days? Even, if they incur a loss of ~30-40% over the current prevailing price; it would still be a fortune. They can easily do that to save on the tax or did you mean something else?
Well, let's use the SNAP example which has been quoted above.
They went public earlier this year. With burgeoning balance sheet they have to fire people:
https://www.businessinsider.in/Snap-hit-with-more-layoffs-pl...
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#14Better source, and one that the article references: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/uber-s-th... At this point, two things are clear to me: 1) Uber will IPO, there's just oo much money and influence behind it to stop that. 2) I'd be really worried if I was an employee about my options and also about my job. Employee's now ahve two large worries hanging over their heads..... What about my job and wh…
I couldn't understand the part about an employee and loosing my job. Are you saying that they won't be able to sell their equity even at a steep discount in 90 days? Even, if they incur a loss of ~30-40% over the current prevailing price; it would still be a fortune. They can easily do that to save on the tax or did you mean something else?
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Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#15Is this abnormal given their size? I remember similar articles about Facebook, Twitter and others.
It certainly allows recycling jokes from 2000. "They may be losing money on every sale, but they'll make it up on volume."
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#16It is strange that private investors are willing to fund my discounted travel.
I seriously don't understand the endgame here.
Apparently, it WOULD BE possible to completely kill off the legacy taxi industry given 10 years or so of artificially subsidized pricing. So I understand the concept of disrupting a previous oligarchy, replacing it with a new monopoly, and then profiting through rent seeking.
But where are the barriers to entry that would allow Uber to solidify as that new monopoly? There's already Lyft today... and once Uber starts to charge their true costs, then we'll likely see numerous other competitors emerge to compete on price. Ultimately, they're just a phone app! Most Uber drivers today are running the Uber app and Lyft app side by side anyway.
The usual playbook calls for the early leader to pay off politicians, and have them write new laws or regulations that raise the barrier to entry for future competitors. But Uber's playbook has been to take an antagonistic stance toward politicians, rather than buying them off. So what's to stop some newer competitor from beating them on price... or some huge company to swoop in after Uber establishes the market, and beat them by cross-promoting and leveraging their other lines of business?
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#17> as the ride-hailing leader struggled to fend off competition, legal challenges and regulatory scrutiny
A good read on this topic calling these business Regulatory Entrepreneurship :
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#18Better source, and one that the article references: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/uber-s-th... At this point, two things are clear to me: 1) Uber will IPO, there's just oo much money and influence behind it to stop that. 2) I'd be really worried if I was an employee about my options and also about my job. Employee's now ahve two large worries hanging over their heads..... What about my job and wh…
Are Uber's costs really in the tech space? It's a complex tech operation for sure, but I wouldn't have thought they could make up much of the 1.5bn USD if they fired a bunch of developers. These bulk of these costs must be in marketing, customer acquisition and discounted fares, right?
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#19It is strange that private investors are willing to fund my discounted travel.
Better use up Uber credits I guess. Uber gc's are selling at 80%-90%, not sure if default risk is properly priced in, lol.
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#20Uber had $6.6bn on hand at the end of June [1]. That means they are down to $5.1bn. Absent cost-cutting, that implies a 9 to 12 month runway. Even if SoftBank injects $1bn, that could only mean a few months’ runway. A large fine in the Waymo case [2] could literally bankrupt them. [1] https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/23/uber-is-still-burning-cas... [2] https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/waymo-uber-tr...
the waymo case will certainly take some time to play out, wont it? I'm assuming year(s), but that's just a guess.