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Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

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Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#91
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.

Get out... what? It does not work that way. You can only sell when you have leverage. When you don't you take investment via private equity to bid your time.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are enough economists that every possible prediction gets made. You shouldn’t lend credence to those who sow fear.

IIRC, it was a survey of at least almost a hundred economists and 80% said by 2020. I also read reasonings by Roubini who predicted the 2008 Great Recession correctly and Martin Feldstein at Harvard. They sounded quite convincing. Interestingly, I did not encounter any opinion by an economist that it is unlikely to occur before 2020. The flurry of upcoming IPOs is also partial evidence of what top VCs and executives…

Ok. so what is the cause of this great recession? Nafta? China? What?

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#93

For those saying this IPO is happening now due to market slowdown, Uber's CEO has been speaking of a 2019 IPO for a while[1]. I am not an investment banker, to me this seems far more pre-planned than a last minute rush before a heavy correction, no? For those who do know the space well, how far ahead would one be able to plan to time this right to happen to coincide with the current trends in the market? [1] https://…

It was well know that both uber and lyft were in competition to whomever would ipo first.

Im sure execs at uber are collectively yelling at their council for fucking this up and being second - it has an immediate color of their IPO being secondary, reactionary, rushed, etc and thus impacts their price accordingly.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#94

For those saying this IPO is happening now due to market slowdown, Uber's CEO has been speaking of a 2019 IPO for a while[1]. I am not an investment banker, to me this seems far more pre-planned than a last minute rush before a heavy correction, no? For those who do know the space well, how far ahead would one be able to plan to time this right to happen to coincide with the current trends in the market? [1] https://…

Companies usually start to think and prep about IPOs 2 ~ 3 years out. The actual IPO process takes 6 ~ 9 months. People have crammed the process into just 3 months! I built a tool [1] to help startups assess IPO readiness. It's kinda fun to run it against your own employer.

[1] https://ipo-ready.com/

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#95
Sustainability is questionable for these firms. Ride hailing and similar services are more likely to evolve into local offerings. It is not a difficult business to replicate, technically, while regulation, infrastructure, social concerns can all be better addressed by local networks. A backlash is growing against exploitation of drivers and privacy weaknesses, which are natural results of the current global aspirations of these networks. I will stay out of these IPOs

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#96
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, it was a survey of at least almost a hundred economists and 80% said by 2020. I also read reasonings by Roubini who predicted the 2008 Great Recession correctly and Martin Feldstein at Harvard. They sounded quite convincing. Interestingly, I did not encounter any opinion by an economist that it is unlikely to occur before 2020. The flurry of upcoming IPOs is also partial evidence of what top VCs and executives…

Ok. so what is the cause of this great recession? Nafta? China? What?

[deleted]

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#97
post #94

For those saying this IPO is happening now due to market slowdown, Uber's CEO has been speaking of a 2019 IPO for a while[1]. I am not an investment banker, to me this seems far more pre-planned than a last minute rush before a heavy correction, no? For those who do know the space well, how far ahead would one be able to plan to time this right to happen to coincide with the current trends in the market? [1] https://…

Companies usually start to think and prep about IPOs 2 ~ 3 years out. The actual IPO process takes 6 ~ 9 months. People have crammed the process into just 3 months! I built a tool [1] to help startups assess IPO readiness. It's kinda fun to run it against your own employer. [1] https://ipo-ready.com/

What's the privacy policy on your tool? The data that I enter, do you have access to it?

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#98
post #95

Sustainability is questionable for these firms. Ride hailing and similar services are more likely to evolve into local offerings. It is not a difficult business to replicate, technically, while regulation, infrastructure, social concerns can all be better addressed by local networks. A backlash is growing against exploitation of drivers and privacy weaknesses, which are natural results of the current global aspiratio…

It's hard to replicate the chicken and egg market of drivers and passengers.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#99
post #90
post #4

Are they profitable? Last I heard they were losing quite a bit of money. [1] And even if they manage to squeak out a GAAP profit, I'm not sure if the business is sustainable. Given that a lot of the capital and operations costs end up on the books of drivers, it's harder to do the math for an end-to-end costs-vs-benefits comparison. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/uber-results/uber-narrows-lo...

They're not close to profitable. Recent quarterly losses: Q1: $601 million net loss Q2: $891 million net loss Q3: $1.07 billion net loss I'm not an accountant, but I'm not sure how this can go well for them.

I can't get my head around that. They lose a fortune every few minutes.

Re: Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors

#100

The number of liquid millionaires in the Bay Area will be astounding come next year...

Something tells me property values are going up again. It's been a little weak lately but not after this.

What's the MO for a tech millionaire, do you retire in the bay area or f-off to somewhere where you can retire in luxury? Or keep grinding in SF?
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