Uber opens at $42 per share • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#131

Post by malvosenior » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

nonaime wrote: post #111

malvosenior wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a heavy early Amazon and Uber user, I'd say not really. Both are pretty revolutionary and I certainly have been paying Uber a lot more than I was paying Amazon when they just sold books.

I get how Amazon can be seen as revolutionary, but not how Uber (or even Lyft) is. I mean, when I think of catching a taxi back in the day, the only difference is that I made a phonecall instead of using an app to get the service. If it's the "gig economy-ness" of it, we had hacks in my hometown. Maybe there was a license requirement to be a hack, but it always felt like hacks were just regular schmoes who would char…

I've had very extensive and very negative taxi experiences around the world. Uber is night and day from a UX perspective. Being able to see where the car is when it's on the way, pre-inputting your destination, paying through the app... The gig economy aspect was definitely revolutionary as well. It's essentially changing the nature of work (love it or hate it).

As much as I love Amazon and always have, in the early days it was "just" ordering books online. Yes, that was great and again the UX was great but it didn't seem as revolutionary as Uber.

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#132

Post by loceng » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

dugluak wrote: post #12

wesammikhail wrote: post #8

disappointing? jesus, its been an hour. Relax your freaking noodles. What´s with everyone and instant gratification these days? The stock is still in range discovery... I myself am bearish but sitting this one out because I have no idea what to make of it. One thing I know though, calling it disappointing 1 hour after open during a tightning range is beyond irresponsible. It´s flat out stupid and lacks any understand…

Sometimes I see no difference between these Market Gurus and Horoscope readers. Just say some bullshit authoritatively and some people will believe.

Well, if it's actually possible to read what stars and their relative positions mean for specific people based on when/where they were born - to understand large holistic patterns - then perhaps there are market gurus who have developed the same knowledge, skill, understanding of the larger picture - an intuition developed perhaps trusting your feelings. And yes, the majority are weighted towards being "sheep" who are in the mode of being indoctrinated - following the crowd..

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#133

Post by matthewowen » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

AznHisoka wrote: post #100

chollida1 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

edited the comment, $45 was the IPO price, meant it will be the fist time since 2008 that a major IPO closed below its IPO price on the first day of trading.

I think Spotify also fell below its IPO opening price as well at the end of the day.

Spotify didn't IPO: they did a direct listing.

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#134

Post by zackbloom » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

mojomark wrote: post #128

throwaway66666 wrote: post #82

Unprofitable companies are the only ones that really benefit from IPOs. An IPO is basically a way for the company to raise money, but tis time straight from the public. Usually when it gets harder and harder for them to attract private investors. The IPO listing basically guarantees that they won't take the public's billions and run. Successful companies with perfect cash flows (think of Github, Valve, IKEA) always t…

> Unprofitable I hear you, but... Meh, they say invest in companies who make products you use. I use the shit out of Uber and I don't plan on stopping even if the price goes up a bit. Now, I'm upper middle class, and I understand this isn't everyone's mindset, so I have no idea how the rest of the world feels. However, there are locatios, like my crappy hometown where I grew up not so fortunate circumstances, where h…

Who says to invest in companies who's products you use? That does not seem like great advice. You should invest in companies who are undervalued by the market in your opinion, not just because you like the product but because you think they have a good business around it.

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#135

Post by kortilla » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #3

Some notes from watching Uber open: - if it closes below $45(its IPO price) it will be the first time since 2008 that the happened for a major IPO - TD Ameritrade executed more orders in the first 10 minutes of trading than they did for the first 2.5 hours with Lyft. - Uber is 9% of all trading at TD Ameritrade, retail loves this stock, - market is down today, which isn't helping Uber but its probably not much of a f…

Where do you get those TD ameritrade stats?

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#136

Post by EpicEng » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #87

ufmace wrote: post #11

Did I miss something? I thought Uber was still a long way from being profitable and had no plausible plan for how to become profitable.

Amazon didn't turned profit for first 5 years or so after IPO. If you go back 15 years down the history, you will find many articles/analysis doubting if they would ever become profitable. However no one doubted that online retail was the future and brick-and-mortar stores will increasingly become part of the history. I see a lot of parallels here. No one doubts anymore that app-based cabs are the future and traditio…

Comparing Uber to Amazon is just silly. Amazon had/has a sustainable, robust business model. They chose to re-invest.

Uber burns money like it's going out if style and has no clear path to profitability.

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#137

Post by hef19898 » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

Duhck wrote: post #99

throwaway66666 wrote: post #82

Unprofitable companies are the only ones that really benefit from IPOs. An IPO is basically a way for the company to raise money, but tis time straight from the public. Usually when it gets harder and harder for them to attract private investors. The IPO listing basically guarantees that they won't take the public's billions and run. Successful companies with perfect cash flows (think of Github, Valve, IKEA) always t…

Needing to raise cash to operate or expand, and positive cashflow arent mutually exclusive ideas. A company can be profitable and still need more working capital to expand. That being said, I don't know what to make of Uber, Lyft and WeWork (future) IPO's yet, but I am highly skeptical

I assume an IPO is the easiest way foe private share holders to cash out. Then again, unless you are really asset heavy (manufacturing, etc..), I agree it might be a sign that less dumb money from the later rounds with dumber money. Or the company is burning cash faster than it is generated.

Case in point, when you cash flow positive and idealy profitable even banks would happily finance your expansions. So unless as a company you want to be growing really fast, I don't see the added benefit of an IPO other than cash flow issues. Add too that the increased scrutiny by the authorities and I d prefer to be private.

Of course the same argument could be made the other way round.

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#138

Post by zepearl » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #85

pastor_elm wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insane how heavy the retail investor scene is right now. Everyone and their grandma is an expert on tech stocks it seems.

It's nothing like the .com boom, CNBC was everywhere. Uber just happens to be really well known by everyone and is thus getting a lot of attention. Your hair dresser isn't likely talking about the Zoom IPO like they would have in 1999.

1998-1999 was sooo crazy. Most stocks kept climbing, high profits dealing with options (calls/puts), almost every week me and my friends celebrated profits. I remember thinking "it cannot be this easy, but it looks like that it is". Then came the big surprise, hehe. Luckily I have always been defensive so I didn't lose a lot of money, but still... .

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#139

Post by fullshark » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #115

dymk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 1997, Amazon's proposition of "Online retailer" was also pretty far fetched. It wasn't obvious that their model was going to make them one of the largest retailers in the world.

It wasn't farfetched, everyone had the same idea, there were dozens of online retailers that IPO'd in those years. Amazon was just better managed so it was one of the few that survived the dotcom crash.

They also started with selling media, which is the perfect industry to get people comfortable with shopping online as quality is nearly assured.

Re: Uber opens at $42 per share

#140

Post by jorblumesea » Fri, May 10, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

throwaway66666 wrote: post #82

Unprofitable companies are the only ones that really benefit from IPOs. An IPO is basically a way for the company to raise money, but tis time straight from the public. Usually when it gets harder and harder for them to attract private investors. The IPO listing basically guarantees that they won't take the public's billions and run. Successful companies with perfect cash flows (think of Github, Valve, IKEA) always t…

Do you really think FB's problems are because of public investors? Zuck has never cared about user privacy. On the contrary, he has always display a "privacy is dead" mentality.