Live data from Hacker News

Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

wsj.com

61–70 of 139 posts

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prep and planning required for these IPOs were done months before these market drops happened.

I would assume that when we’re talking about billions of dollars that the people in charge of creating an IPO strategy are a bit more ahead of the markets than the rest of us right? Full disclosure I’m not knowledgeable in this area, but it would seem to me that this is the case and having made plans months before the market turns isn’t necessarily proof that it isn’t being done with market knowledge. Just a thought.

From what I read in Matt Levine's bloomberg column - not really. Bankers make money by being middle men, not predicting the market.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#62
post #13

So are these companies rushing to IPO before a 'potential' recession occurs? Does anyone else not feel confident about this? It seems fear driven and not very calculated. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture..

Definitely fear driven. Recently we've seen the biggest sustained downward drops in five years for tech stocks, I think beginning the process now is just too late.

Agreed.

FAANGMAN is down 22.4% from ATH, and probably in much better shape than Lyft or Uber. I'm probably going to wait for a pop in both prices of these (if they manage to go IPO anytime soon) and then short.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prep and planning required for these IPOs were done months before these market drops happened.

I would assume that when we’re talking about billions of dollars that the people in charge of creating an IPO strategy are a bit more ahead of the markets than the rest of us right? Full disclosure I’m not knowledgeable in this area, but it would seem to me that this is the case and having made plans months before the market turns isn’t necessarily proof that it isn’t being done with market knowledge. Just a thought.

Global markets have been in a downward spiral since the beginning of this year, esp ex US (where most of the growth has been), and if you look at the divergence between the growth this year between US companies, fewer and fewer companies have been holding up the market.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#64
Uber’s PR team probably rushed the news out right after Lyft’s IPO announcement to make sure that investors would spend as much time to consider its prospectus as they do Lyft’s.

The possible market crash in 2019/2020 predicted by quite a few prominent economists and approximately $1 billion a quarter burn rate [1] have for a while been major reasons for their upcoming IPO.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-14/uber-reve...

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#65
post #14

I am calling a market top here with the recent flurry of plans to IPO. Market has been shaky recently and I wonder if investors/founders are trying to get out ahead of a complete meltdown.

Exactly. If they are not getting out now, they might not exit ever.

An IPO is not something you do just at one day out of the blue. It needs a lot of planning and paperwork. Uber has been planning this for for something like a year, since their new CEO came on board. They even started showing their finances and earnings since a while ago, which is not something a private company has to do.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#66
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely fear driven. Recently we've seen the biggest sustained downward drops in five years for tech stocks, I think beginning the process now is just too late.

Agreed. FAANGMAN is down 22.4% from ATH, and probably in much better shape than Lyft or Uber. I'm probably going to wait for a pop in both prices of these (if they manage to go IPO anytime soon) and then short.

Facebook is down for obvious reasons. Apple struggles with sales and innovation. Amazon just made no sense to be rising like that. Some of the others have done fairly well in the recent shake up, like Microsoft for instance.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#68
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prep and planning required for these IPOs were done months before these market drops happened.

That is a meaningless statement. The decision to prepare is distinct from the decision to commit. It's farcical to imagine that these overvalued companies are just filing on sheer momentum. Doing it now is an affirmative decision. Also, the drop began two months ago and the signs of volatility where there in January.

To be fair, they have been talking of a 2019 IPO since more then a year ago.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#70

So are these companies rushing to IPO before a 'potential' recession occurs? Does anyone else not feel confident about this? It seems fear driven and not very calculated. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture..

Most big tech IPOs these days are just for the founders to cash out. Look at facebook's, they were essenitally done growing and innovating, the IPO was just a means for execs to cash in their stock at inflated rates.

Something similar might happen here with Uber... we will see.
Post reply on HN