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SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

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131–140 of 143 posts

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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is that you can call a cab and it will pick you up and you will have an understanding of the price you will pay. LOL you must never have taken a cab ride pre-Uber. Your two assertions are the two main reasons why Uber and Lyft exist. > In an Uber/Lyft ride hailing system cabs can only be hailed via an app, and will only accept the most profitable rides. You don't know how the Uber app works.

> You don't know how the Uber app works. So Uber drivers are not able to decline a ride request?

No, not the way that you're describing. They have no way to "accept only the most profitable rides". This is patently false.

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't know how the Uber app works. So Uber drivers are not able to decline a ride request?

No, not the way that you're describing. They have no way to "accept only the most profitable rides". This is patently false.

Ok yeah I see what you mean.

The fear that I've heard described by politicians in my city is that uber drivers could position themselves in areas where they know from experience they will be most profitable (eg. dense downtown core) while avoiding areas that over time are not as profitable (eg. sparse outer areas). This fact, coupled with the fact that they are not obligated to travel to a certain area to receive a fare, means that certain areas could receive less reliable service as drivers chase high profit areas and are able to ignore others.

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

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask your grandma etc if they would use that. Anyone above 50 these days will probably not give you a nice answer to having to use smartphones or voice assistants that usually understand less than a newborn child.

You've never met a newborn child.

Happen to have a grown up child. Duh.

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

#134
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask your grandma etc if they would use that. Anyone above 50 these days will probably not give you a nice answer to having to use smartphones or voice assistants that usually understand less than a newborn child.

As someone around that age get off your virtue signaling high horse. People in their fifties today helped build most of the tech you use every day, but even if they hadn’t your implicit ageism levied in service of an accessibility rant is a level of irony that just can’t be ignored.

Considering my own age, it might happen that I just mentioned this because I am rather close to that generation myself.

I seriously doubt people will be comfortable with this stuff unless they have a history with engineering/IT.

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The missing $24 were health insurance, car insurance, pension payments for the driver etc. All not being paid. Uber is no ride share service, it is a test project to figure out if modern society will accept a larger lower income working class without any social security, and that is what all investment firms bet on.

> The missing $24 were health insurance, car insurance, pension payments for the driver etc. Car insurance, maybe; car companies don't pay health insurance or pensions either for their drivers, who are also characterized as contractors rather than employees.

Most of them do some driving on the side to supplement their income.

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

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not the way that you're describing. They have no way to "accept only the most profitable rides". This is patently false.

Ok yeah I see what you mean. The fear that I've heard described by politicians in my city is that uber drivers could position themselves in areas where they know from experience they will be most profitable (eg. dense downtown core) while avoiding areas that over time are not as profitable (eg. sparse outer areas). This fact, coupled with the fact that they are not obligated to travel to a certain area to receive a f…

If there is demand and lack of supply in an area then it will surge.

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

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not the way that you're describing. They have no way to "accept only the most profitable rides". This is patently false.

Ok yeah I see what you mean. The fear that I've heard described by politicians in my city is that uber drivers could position themselves in areas where they know from experience they will be most profitable (eg. dense downtown core) while avoiding areas that over time are not as profitable (eg. sparse outer areas). This fact, coupled with the fact that they are not obligated to travel to a certain area to receive a f…

Your politicians are lying to you because they are paid off by the taxi monopoly. Service everywhere increases because of Uber and Lyft. The behavior you describe is exactly what taxis do. If you look at how things improved in all cities, service improved by orders of magnitude. In NYC, service to all 5 boroughs improved dramatically because of Uber and Lyft, because taxis would only service manhattan.

Before you follow blindly what your politicians are telling you, do some research and educate yourself first. Don’t rely on headlines and word of mouth.

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

#139
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has been making offers in RSUs for more than 2 years: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/3u5asj/u...

Ah, good point. Here's confirmation of that from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-said-to-c... For the people who have options, some could still be entirely wiped out by this, but it's not as big a problem for new hires. It's still a problem, though. As the Reddit discussion makes clear, people are benchmarking against things like Google. The equivalent equity package from Google 2 years ag…

Uber was handing out 4x in fictional equity back then compared to Google's real RSUs.

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

#140
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's really bad for anybody who has options. The last time Uber's valuation was this low was 2 1/2 years ago. I don't know how Uber did employee equity, but if it was options with a valuation based on the numbers we're seeing in public, then somebody who joined 2 years ago would just have had their equity stake drop to $0. And in some sense it's negative, in that even if the valuation goes up modestly, their stake is…

> if it was options with a valuation based on the numbers we're seeing in public.

It's not. Public numbers are based on preferred shares. Options are common.

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