Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 143 posts

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#111

Post by marenkay »

astrange wrote: post #91
Tiktaalik wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many elderly people are no longer able to drive and aren't technically comfortable with using mobile phones. App based ride hailing dominance reduces accessibility.

A button that calls you an Uber is as easy to build as a button that calls the taxi dispatcher for you, but I don’t think the elderly appreciate the taxi experience of demanding cash because they’re pretending the card reader broke. (You can already get a voice assistant to book a ride for you too.)

Ask your grandma etc if they would use that. Anyone above 50 these days will probably not give you a nice answer to having to use smartphones or voice assistants that usually understand less than a newborn child.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#112

Post by brucephillips »

marenkay wrote: post #111
astrange wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A button that calls you an Uber is as easy to build as a button that calls the taxi dispatcher for you, but I don’t think the elderly appreciate the taxi experience of demanding cash because they’re pretending the card reader broke. (You can already get a voice assistant to book a ride for you too.)

Ask your grandma etc if they would use that. Anyone above 50 these days will probably not give you a nice answer to having to use smartphones or voice assistants that usually understand less than a newborn child.

You've never met a newborn child.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#113

Post by linkregister »

xocyabencl wrote: post #99
sulam wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument has obvious merit, but the standard is to report on the preferred price, not the common price.

Agreed that the press does go around using this $70B number as a valuation. If the company IPO'd at less than $70B it would similarly be reported as a dud. Recruiters also use the $70B when offering stock options. And I'm sure it feels like a haircut to those employees who just sold their stock at a $49B valuation.

All of the employees who sold in this tender offer have options, which have a maximum strike of less than $20 per share for common stock. Only RSUs were issued after early 2015. Uber’s valuation was $40B then.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#114

Post by sulam »

xocyabencl wrote: post #99
sulam wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument has obvious merit, but the standard is to report on the preferred price, not the common price.

Agreed that the press does go around using this $70B number as a valuation. If the company IPO'd at less than $70B it would similarly be reported as a dud. Recruiters also use the $70B when offering stock options. And I'm sure it feels like a haircut to those employees who just sold their stock at a $49B valuation.

I've only got two IPOs under my belt, but both cases the 1st trade settled above the preferred price in the last round. I think that's fairly typical, fwiw.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#115

Post by paganel »

StreamBright wrote: post #85
msoad wrote: post #5

A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…

Europe has Taxify that has Chinese investors as well.

It's the same Chinese company Didi (https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/chinas-didi-invests-in-tax...).

Over-here in Romania Uber is also scoring it big in cities like Bucharest or Cluj, almost all of the middle-class people between 20 and 40 years of age now use it, they've almost all stopped taking taxis (seen as too dirty). I'm one of the few exceptions in my circle of friends (I'm in my late 30s) who still uses taxis taken directly off the street or by actually calling a phone number, because I don't want another company tracking my every move (it's enough that Apple and most probably Google are doing it).

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#116

Post by iopq »

marenkay wrote: post #110
iopq wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The driver uses that money to pay for his own health insurance and retirement. Contrary to your post, Uber provided me with commercial vehicle insurance when I was driving for them.

That is the problem here. Employed work means sharing the duties of social security between company and employee. Uber moves their payments on your shoulders. And that point is exactly what makes up Ubers' valuation. Ignoring the questionable ethics of that this should be reconsidered though because comparing to the technical value of their service they are requiring way too many engineers to deliver their services,…

There is no duty for a company to provide social security for contractors. Same way as an Uber contractor has no responsibility to drive a certain amount of time or at certain hours.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#117

Post by 1_2__4 »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #89
iopq wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber and Lyft actually succeeded in creating an accessible system that everyone could afford. You have it all backwards. The common person can actually afford Uber, not cabs.

Many elderly people are no longer able to drive and aren't technically comfortable with using mobile phones. App based ride hailing dominance reduces accessibility.

No, it doesn’t.

See we can both play the no proof game.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#118

Post by 1_2__4 »

marenkay wrote: post #111
astrange wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A button that calls you an Uber is as easy to build as a button that calls the taxi dispatcher for you, but I don’t think the elderly appreciate the taxi experience of demanding cash because they’re pretending the card reader broke. (You can already get a voice assistant to book a ride for you too.)

Ask your grandma etc if they would use that. Anyone above 50 these days will probably not give you a nice answer to having to use smartphones or voice assistants that usually understand less than a newborn child.

As someone around that age get off your virtue signaling high horse. People in their fifties today helped build most of the tech you use every day, but even if they hadn’t your implicit ageism levied in service of an accessibility rant is a level of irony that just can’t be ignored.

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#119

Post by flylib »

robhunter wrote: post #45

Are they not just buying common stock or Series Seed/A/B stock from existing investors? I'm under the impression this is a totally different class of stock than the $70B valuation round? Common stock at a $49B valuation is entirely different from preferred stock at a $70B valuation with what I'll assume includes a lot of "fine print" around pro-rata and/or liquidation preferences. Feels a little clickbait-y to say th…

also there is limited liquidity and limited secondary activity so it is either sell at $49 billion or wait for an IPO, Softbank has all the leverage, why on earth wouldn't they try to lowball investors who were going to sell and had no other options

Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber

#120

Post by xocyabencl »

sulam wrote: post #114
xocyabencl wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed that the press does go around using this $70B number as a valuation. If the company IPO'd at less than $70B it would similarly be reported as a dud. Recruiters also use the $70B when offering stock options. And I'm sure it feels like a haircut to those employees who just sold their stock at a $49B valuation.

I've only got two IPOs under my belt, but both cases the 1st trade settled above the preferred price in the last round. I think that's fairly typical, fwiw.

Having the stock after IPO trade at the old preferred price represents a significant increase of the actual value of the company, even though it's not usually reported as such.
Post reply on HN