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SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

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Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#11
post #3

Still a heck of a return for early investors: > Seed investors in Uber who sell to SoftBank will make a ~3600x return. $1.6 million round in 2010 would now be worth $5.7 billion at offer price. https://twitter.com/alfredjlee/status/946443457039540225

Should have invested in bitcoin instead! ;)

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#12
post #3

Still a heck of a return for early investors: > Seed investors in Uber who sell to SoftBank will make a ~3600x return. $1.6 million round in 2010 would now be worth $5.7 billion at offer price. https://twitter.com/alfredjlee/status/946443457039540225

This is why there’s a unicorn obsession.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#13
post #6

How often do companies come back from down rounds? It seems like any company willing to take a down round is also fine with taking a publicity hit and a hit to morale, which suggests it's in an even worse spot compared to what the devaluation would suggest. Is there precedent that suggests even that SoftBank will come out on top from this?

Maybe I’m alone but my initial reaction was: “oh 30% doesn’t sound that bad”.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#14
post #5

A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…

But Uber isn’t limited to the USA and Canada. At least, not like how Didi is limited to china: https://www.uber.com/country-list/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)#Legal_status_...

Yes, but scale of countries like Bahrain doesn't make a dent. Also, in each of those countries Uber has a competition that is usually more successful than Uber. That's not true in Brazil and Mexico and that's why Didi is rushing there!

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#15
post #5

A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…

> If Uber is limited to US and Canada

I fervently hope it's the US only. I will talk to my MLA and show him a nice collection of news about Uber in hope they will not allow them to operate their scam in Vancouver.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#16
post #6

How often do companies come back from down rounds? It seems like any company willing to take a down round is also fine with taking a publicity hit and a hit to morale, which suggests it's in an even worse spot compared to what the devaluation would suggest. Is there precedent that suggests even that SoftBank will come out on top from this?

In early stages it's relatively rare (or, perhaps more bad). When you're the size of Uber a downround isn't a necessarily uncommon thing, and it's very unlikely to be a company killer.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#17
post #5

A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…

This seems kinda odd, because one of the main plus points for me is that Uber worked somewhat internationally. I use Lyft only, but that was a key differentiator for me actually. As a more interesting question, is there any difference between saying SoftBank is competing with Uber and that SoftBank has hedged against an Uber investment? I feel like the latter may be more the framing of these investments.

Same here. In the States I mostly use Lyft, but internationally it's easier to just use the Uber app instead of first figuring out which other options are available. In many cases installing the local apps doesn't even work because they are limited to their own local app stores.

One of the next steps for those companies is probably to get roaming agreements with each other: When I'm in a country where, e.g., Uber doesn't operate I'd still like to be able to use the Uber app to order cars from whatever local companies Uber has an agreement with.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#18
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Uber isn’t limited to the USA and Canada. At least, not like how Didi is limited to china: https://www.uber.com/country-list/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)#Legal_status_...

Yes, but scale of countries like Bahrain doesn't make a dent. Also, in each of those countries Uber has a competition that is usually more successful than Uber. That's not true in Brazil and Mexico and that's why Didi is rushing there!

In my experience, the Didi app is inferior to Uber's. Not sure how they would manage to outcompete.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#19
post #15
post #5

A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…

> If Uber is limited to US and Canada I fervently hope it's the US only. I will talk to my MLA and show him a nice collection of news about Uber in hope they will not allow them to operate their scam in Vancouver.

Is Uber a scam, or is ride share, in your opinion?

Ride share is a great servicce for people and increases safety in many areas.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#20
post #2

Does anyone really think that Uber has enough runway, or could ever get enough, to last until the necessary level of automation is developed? SoftBank though, between this and their incredibly favorable, conditional loan to Theranos really has an eye for distressed assets! If someone does have a vision for a successful Uber, I’d love to hear it, not to try and pick it apart, just to understand what’s happening.

Uber should easily be profitable without driverless cars. Uber's cost to book rides is pennies, its share of ride revenues is dollars. It's likely profitable or close in north america now.

The naked capitalism analysis was childishly biased, completely done without access to the necessary detail of their financials. Uber under Kalanick poured massive amounts of money into accelerating international market expansion as well as a huge number of side projects of questionable value.

Uber just exited the car leasing business. Yes, Kalanick had Uber leasing cars to drivers, and losing big money doing it. How much has it poured into Uber Eats? How much did it pour into driverless car tech when it will be easily available whenever it becomes good enough for regulators to allow it? Besides the cost, how big a distraction to running the actual business of offering car sharing services were these hundred other endeavors?

The new CEO just has to trim out almost all of the side businesses, and put the focus on finding more cost effective ways to grow Uber's car sharing services world wide. Part of that is not pissing on your own brand by doing sleazy things. In the end, if they remain the world wide leader in car sharing service, installed on the most mobile devices, with the biggest pool of drivers and customers, they'll be very profitable. and making the transition to driverless cars will be easier for them than anyone else because they'll have the biggest brand and customer base.

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