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Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

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Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#14
> Shareholders in Careem, whose backers include Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment firm and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc., [...]

Isn't a public Saudi Arabian fund already heavily invested in the Softbank Vision fund, which in turn has invested a lot in Uber? [0] I don't know who the respective principals are of these funds but that seems noteworthy to me (especially at these valuations).

[0]: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/saudi-arabia-pif-tech-in...

Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#15

Doesn't this, so close to their purported IPO, fly right in the face of what they consider to be their network effect? Why would they need to buy competitors if not because it's expensive for them to compete against local upstarts who own a smaller market?

Uber's network effect is localized to cities. If Uber attempts to enter a market with a strong local player, the local player stands a decent shot at defending since Uber's global dominance doesn't really transfer over to that particular city.

This is unlike social networks, like WhatsApp, where the network effect is truly global since people often have friends and relatives in distant cities.

Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#16
As great as this will be for the tech ecosystem in the Middle East, this type of consolidation should be blocked for antitrust. It'll be bad for customers and drivers.

But it won't be blocked. Uber and Careem share common investors (aka Saudi) and this would be a huge win for them.

Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#17
post #14

> Shareholders in Careem, whose backers include Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment firm and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc., [...] Isn't a public Saudi Arabian fund already heavily invested in the Softbank Vision fund, which in turn has invested a lot in Uber? [0] I don't know who the respective principals are of these funds but that seems noteworthy to me (especially at these valuations). [0]: htt…

Al Waleed’s investment fund is private, not public.

Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#18

How much capital does Uber have left? My understanding was that they only had a few billion dollars left and were burning > 1B a quarter. And they are still not profitable right? On what basis exactly are they going to IPO? What's the angle for buying shares of a company that is losing so much money?

Some individual markets are supposedly profitable.

Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#19

How much capital does Uber have left? My understanding was that they only had a few billion dollars left and were burning > 1B a quarter. And they are still not profitable right? On what basis exactly are they going to IPO? What's the angle for buying shares of a company that is losing so much money?

$50b in revenue last year is nothing to scoff at. They have levers for profit but instead re-invest every dollar. Your argument sounds exactly like what people said about Amazon years ago.

Re: Uber to Seal $3.1B Deal to Buy Careem This Week

#20
post #17
post #14

> Shareholders in Careem, whose backers include Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment firm and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc., [...] Isn't a public Saudi Arabian fund already heavily invested in the Softbank Vision fund, which in turn has invested a lot in Uber? [0] I don't know who the respective principals are of these funds but that seems noteworthy to me (especially at these valuations). [0]: htt…

Al Waleed’s investment fund is private, not public.

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