131–140 of 213 posts
I am long on Uber: taxis are dead, it will not go anywhere. The only problem is that the board made a strategic mistake that felt good short term. They tried to retain users by pushing the founder out, and hiring a diversity CEO. This failed long term as any populist board move does. But they still have a chance to have their NeXT moment and bring Travis back.
There are other apps comings, and there is regulation coming as well.
From Q3 results, it sounded like the company was profitable just on ride-sharing itself and was losing a ton of money on eats + cargo + autonomous vehicles R&D. I wonder what a fair valuation would be for just the ride-sharing business if they were to spin off / shut down every other part of their business and essentially become Lyft.
Only if goofy non-GAAP accounting is the standard (it's not).
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That’s a pretty cynical and inaccurate way of looking at it. They did create hundreds of thousands of part-time to full-time jobs which presumably did not benefit only the 1%. They did drastically lower the price of point-to-point transportation, thereby massively expanding the market for it which presumably did not benefit only the 1%. etc
But all of that was temporary. The jobs go away when Uber falls apart and the cheap point to point transport paid for by VCs is also gone. However the taxi companies that existed are now gone as they could not compete with Uber and the ones that could compete are working for less than before.
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I'm not oppossed to frat bro culture tout court. As long as employees aren't being harmed and productivity is high, then the choice to work at a place with just such a culture is like the decision to choose to work anywhere. Pretty standard stuff. However, people can mistake a frat bro culture with actually high productivity (leaving aside questions of whether employees are harmed by the culture). Zenefits pre-Parker…
The real problem is that Uber's lawbreaking and unethical behavior stems directly from the "bro culture".
From my perspective, that would be prima facie wrong. I've witnessed frat bro cultures that led to that and ones that haven't. Just like every other type of culture.
Maybe we aren't talking about the same thing.
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If Uber counts as a successful company by SV standards, that's a pretty strong condemnation of SV standards.
If it’s worth one third of its current market cap it’s worth $15B. For a company that’s ten years old that’s incredible.
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The real problem is that Uber's lawbreaking and unethical behavior stems directly from the "bro culture".
That's a rather strong claim. What's the causal relationship here? All frat bro cultures necessarily create lawbreaking and unethical behavior? From my perspective, that would be prima facie wrong. I've witnessed frat bro cultures that led to that and ones that haven't. Just like every other type of culture. Maybe we aren't talking about the same thing.
Some unsolicited advice for any Uber employees here on HN: You may want to seriously consider selling all vested shares. The price not be what you are expecting, but, from my own personal experience, and "most expert advice", it can be better to sell and diversify. Many one-time high-fliers, such as Zynga (where I previously worked), never got back to their IPO or lockup expiry price.
Take granto’s advice.
On the flip side, buying stocks at all time highs, while counter intuitive, is one of the best equity strategies available (with trailing stops).
Buying Uber stock here is borderline moronic until the trend turns around.
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This reads like the usual Uber criticism and doesn't touch on the lockup. The market knew the lockup was ending, so it should have been priced in. Dropping when the lockup ends should mean that markets underestimated how many insiders wanted to cash out, and employee sentiment is worse than market sentiment.
While yours is an economics textbook answer, any trader will tell you, "it doesn't matter until it matters."