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Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

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Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#31

Post by [deleted] »

jodrellblank wrote: post #22
michalu wrote: post #11

That's to be expected. He was ousted from the company, has no control now so there's little reason why he should be bullish on a stock run by other people. Plus, the future isn't so clear and the markets are at all time highs and he has other company that may require liquidity in the coming years. Better be in cash.

the markets are at all time highs Isn't the world economy built on the idea that markets will always go up? Every year should be an all time high, otherwise we're in recession which is (apparently) tragedy to be avoided at all costs, no?

[deleted]

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#32

Post by est31 »

fastball wrote: post #12
gwd wrote: post #6

From TFA: > The 43-year-old’s remaining stake in the ride-hailing company now constitutes about a fifth of his $3 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, down from about 75% before the lockup. To be fair, if I had 75% of my net worth in a single asset, I'd also try to diversify. My wife and I both have lots of stock in the companies we work for, due to RSUs and employee stock purchase programs…

Although you make a good point about general portfolio diversification, the difference between a "normal" employee and a co-founder is fairly large in this instance. Co-founders are supposed to have confidence in the business they built - if they don't, why should other investors?

> Co-founders are supposed to have confidence in the business they built - if they don't, why should other investors?

But what's in it for the co-founder? Usually it's that they have lots of power over the company, e.g. being a CEO, and have more freedom than someone who still has to prove that they deserve that power. Jeff Bezos for example "only" owns 100 billion USD but controls a 800 billion USD company, with the freedom and power of a cofounder. After a certain amount of money, say 10 million, you can fulfill most of your dreams. And there are plenty of people who have that amount. But few can say they are in control of a 0.8 trillion dollar company.

As the other comments point out, Travis was kicked out though so he lost his power. So it's only understandable that he diversifies his portfolio.

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#33

Post by akavi »

TylerE wrote: post #26
dannylandau wrote: post #14

I wonder what the tax rate on his windfall, 50%?

Try 15%, at a maximum.

20%, you mean, for federal long term capital gains.

Plus 3.8% for Net Investment Income Tax.

Plus, he resides in CA, so tack on ~12% (he's making so much marginality doesn't really affect things) in state taxes.

~36% in total, which is a lower effective tax rate than many people here, but not quite as outrageous.

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#34

Post by sigstoat »

fastball wrote: post #20
bdcravens wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many, many more that belong on that list. Becoming a paper billionaire without profit isn't restricted to the companies we love to hate.

True, but those two are actual billionaires while their companies are floundering (Uber much less so than WeWork, but still - 37% down since IPO isn't great). I can't think of many other examples where the company is doing so poorly and the co-founders made off with $1B+, given that this was not an acquisition. Maybe a better title would be "Getting to a Billion without Long-Term Viability or Acquisition".

> 37% down since IPO isn't great

basically every company drops from their IPO. indexes and funds and such don't include them for months (6? or more?) in order to give that a chance to settle out.

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#35

Post by michalu »

joncrane wrote: post #2

Interesting that the currrent CEO is buying Uber stock while founders are dumping it. It's unclear whether the stock Dara Khosrowshahi is buying comes at a discount, though.

Could be just an act of politics (boost employee morale, investor confidence, etc.)

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#36

Post by a-robinson »

TylerE wrote: post #26
dannylandau wrote: post #14

I wonder what the tax rate on his windfall, 50%?

Try 15%, at a maximum.

I'm not a tax lawyer, but 20% is the long-term capital gains rate for earnings greater than $400k or so - https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/capital-gains-tax-rate...

That page also calls out a "net investment income tax" that sounds like it would add an additional 3.8% on such large capital gains.

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#37

Post by onetimemanytime »

fastball wrote: post #12
gwd wrote: post #6

From TFA: > The 43-year-old’s remaining stake in the ride-hailing company now constitutes about a fifth of his $3 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, down from about 75% before the lockup. To be fair, if I had 75% of my net worth in a single asset, I'd also try to diversify. My wife and I both have lots of stock in the companies we work for, due to RSUs and employee stock purchase programs…

Although you make a good point about general portfolio diversification, the difference between a "normal" employee and a co-founder is fairly large in this instance. Co-founders are supposed to have confidence in the business they built - if they don't, why should other investors?

Yeah but he's not running Uber anymore. Also, clouds have gathered...

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#38

Post by ummonk »

thisisbrians wrote: post #13
fastball wrote: post #7

Travis Kalanick and Adam Neumann should co-author a book entitled "Making Billions - No Profitability Required".

Your company doesn't have to make a profit for it to be (legitimately) worth a lot of money...Amazon is a great example.

Amazon didn't really have bad unit economics. It just spent a lot on growth and R&D, but the core business was profitable from early on, unlike Uber and WeWork.

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#39

Post by lm28469 »

thisisbrians wrote: post #13
fastball wrote: post #7

Travis Kalanick and Adam Neumann should co-author a book entitled "Making Billions - No Profitability Required".

Your company doesn't have to make a profit for it to be (legitimately) worth a lot of money...Amazon is a great example.

Yeah sure, you can sell 10$ pizzas for 5$ as long as you fill the gape with investor's money ... and by pizzas I mean taxi rides.

That's called a zombie company btw, https://www.bis.org/about/areport/areport2019.pdf

Re: Travis Kalanick Is Exiting His Uber Holdings Uber Quickly

#40

Post by ralph84 »

fastball wrote: post #24
thisisbrians wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your company doesn't have to make a profit for it to be (legitimately) worth a lot of money...Amazon is a great example.

Amazon does make a profit though. And when they weren't, it was by choice and they were not burning billions in investor dollars to do it. But yes, I probably should've said "Viability" instead of "Profitability".

Every unprofitable growth company says they’re doing it “by choice”. And every unprofitable growth company burns investor dollars (where else would the dollars come from?). During Amazon’s unprofitable years many people were saying the exact same things about Amazon that people say about Uber now.

Of course that doesn’t mean every unprofitable growth company is Amazon, but Amazon’s success means companies won’t stop trying to emulate it.

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