Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#211

Post by Talanes » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:24 AM UTC

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #176

richthegeek wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber Eats has done this to me and it made me stopped using them. Driver needs to wait for the second meal to be prepared, pack it together, take a detour to the other place and spend time delivering it. So your meal arrives late, cold, and crushed after you paid full-price for the delivery.

> Driver needs to wait for the second meal to be prepared, That's the rub right there. If you're the winner in the market, can send info to a restaurant to keep your food hot (or even hotter than normal) and can schedule it perfectly it will work. Once you spend a couple of billions into the infrastructure to make it happen, you can totally make a couple of hundred thousands worth of profit - 2020 Startups.

>send info to a restaurant to keep your food hot

I'm not sure what exactly you think restaurants can do with that request. A small subset of places will have a heat lamp, but that still doesn't really preserve quality, just heat.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#212

Post by jon-wood » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:27 AM UTC

ethbro wrote: post #130

saalweachter wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for one thing, "integration". Domino's is built to deliver pizzas. They have streamlined the process of an order being placed, prepped, and handed off to delivery to try to make each step of the process as efficient as possible. Do "horizontal" delivery companies have similar integration and benefit from similar efficiency? In an ideal delivery situation, you want two things to be true: first, delivery people s…

I suppose the argument goes: if anyone can approach that optimality, it's a company with a large fleet of repurposable drivers. Being able to dispatch to a driver in motion depends on having a suitable driver available. I'm still doubtful it can ever work, for the reasons people mentioned above. But the realistic game is that Uber becomes the new Yelp and strongarms restaurants for a share of their profit, in return…

Uber and the like already take a share of the profit, last time I chatted to a restaurant owner while waiting to pick up some food I'd ordered even Just Eat, who don't even provide delivery services, take a 15% cut of the order value. Uber/Delivery I believe are taking 20-30% of the order value, which given the margins on takeout food feels like its leaving basically nothing on the table for the actual restaurant.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#213

Post by Talanes » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:27 AM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #206

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is mostly limited by requirements to get food there quickly. If we knew what we wanted ahead of time, scheduling delivery ahead of time would make it easy... since you could use a delivery route (to deliver 2-3 items nearby). A single winner may be able to make it work since you can do 1-2 pickups and deliver to two nearby homes.

Huh. Interesting! How about a food truck with a kitchen that drives a pre-defined route to delivers pre-ordered food?

At that point you're not a food delivery service, you're a restaurant that only offers delivery.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#214

Post by Talanes » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:36 AM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #119

bhl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a questions that’s going to pop up is, why does delivery work for a company like Dominos’s (vertical integration) but not Postmates (horizontal)?

Well, for one thing, "integration". Domino's is built to deliver pizzas. They have streamlined the process of an order being placed, prepped, and handed off to delivery to try to make each step of the process as efficient as possible. Do "horizontal" delivery companies have similar integration and benefit from similar efficiency? In an ideal delivery situation, you want two things to be true: first, delivery people s…

Additionally "idle" doesn't mean quite the same thing to the vertically-integrated driver as it does to the horizontally-integrated driver. A Domino's driver who arrives at the restaurant before the pizza is ready is still a Domino's employee. The Uber driver who arrives before the McDonald's order is ready is just a dude in the lobby.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#215

Post by angusb » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:36 AM UTC

what does all-stock mean when it's an IPO'd company?

I've always thought that a liquid asset like Uber stock is basically as good as cash, so why do they even bother mentioning that it?

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#216

Post by xvector » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:38 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #96

xvector wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps because of this Doordash has been aggressively cutting their refund policies. If an item is not delivered you don't get a full refund and often don't even get a refund for the item price + tax on said item.

The automatic refund gives that scam price, but if you insist on the full refund plus tax you'll still get it

Not been the case for me unfortunately, even after escalating. Ordered some stuff and everything but the condiments were destroyed on delivery. Couldn't get a full refund.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#217

Post by ipsi » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:43 AM UTC

adjkant wrote: post #152

This feels like another grasp at straws, and one that may backfire quicker than expected based on my experience on the ground. In NYC I've recently noticed that the pandemic has created a much larger focus on delivery and takeout margins, and these platforms are actually losing good restaurants. I for one am happy based on who I see picking them up though: ChowNow. Right now, my 3 most common orders (and more I'm see…

Their website is just their logo. I'm assuming that's because they aren't offering service in the country I live in, but I'd expect them to at least say that? As it stands, I don't know if the page is broken, if my ad-blocker has screwed it up, or if they're just not offering me service...

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#218

Post by maps7 » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #186

cycomanic wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've said this in another thread, the business of all these "startups" seems not to be of making a sustainable business, but instead it's more of a pyramid scheme where one set of investors are trying to make money of the next round of investors (up to and after IPO). If we view it like that it makes sense, the merger/acquisition will increase stock prices because it seems like there is a holistic strategy. At some p…

It's a wealth transfer scheme. Wealth is transferred from ordinary folk via the IPO-retirement-fund axis to the plethora of agents involved in the whole scheme, from the employees bashing out code and UX, right through to everyone involved the M&A and IPO and the whole tax / tax agent / government tax agency cadre. It's not trickledown . It's deluge-up economics.

Is retirement fund money really being put into Uber?

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#219

Post by huangbong » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:45 AM UTC

angusb wrote: post #215

what does all-stock mean when it's an IPO'd company? I've always thought that a liquid asset like Uber stock is basically as good as cash, so why do they even bother mentioning that it?

There’s probably time restrictions on when you can sell the stock. Also if you cashed out $2.65 billion of Uber stock the price would go way down.

Re: Uber, Postmates Agree on $2.65B All-Stock Deal

#220

Post by PopeDotNinja » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:47 AM UTC

vecinu wrote: post #136

Arubis wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amex has customer service at least an order of magnitude better than any Visa/MC licensee I’ve dealt with; that’s really what you’re paying for. If something goes wrong with a purchase, they’ll tend to make it right without asking many questions/filling any forms. Lost cards can be next-day’s without charge. They have actual physical offices in non-US nations that can advance you local currency and provide you a new…

That's interesting, I have many credit cars from Visa/MC/Discover and never had an issue with fraud purchases or lost cards.

The only payment service I’ve had fraud trouble with is PayPal. Their customer service is the worst. I recently bought something through PayPal, and it was amazing to see how hard a fraudulent seller could take their system.