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

91–100 of 143 posts

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

#91

Post by astrange »

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.

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.)

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

#92

Post by sulam »

xocyabencl wrote: post #88
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's not how that works. The preferred share and common share prices converge towards a liquidity event, like an IPO, when preferred shares are converted to common shares. It's expected that common shares are worth less than preferred shares. After all, the preferred shares could be paid out at value in, e.g. in the event that the company is sold for far less than the current valuation, and the common shares wo…

Common stock is worth less than preferred. Most stock is not preferred. Therefore there was never $70B worth of Uber stock in existence.

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

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

#93

Post by drawnwren »

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…

The number of times this exact mistake is made on headlines about Uber makes me wonder if it isn't being made maliciously.

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

#94

Post by smallnamespace »

ec109685 wrote: post #81
NelsonMinar wrote: post #47

What's the purpose of this $1B investment at a $70B fictional valuation given that everyone knows the actual valuation is $48B? Does it make the tax accounting better for someone somehow? I'm with discordianfish in saying only 30% down sounds better than it could have been for Uber.

The 1B at 70B valuation is preferred stock.

The question is why you would quote that number if preferred stock isn't 100% of the capital structure.

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

#95

Post by ohhnoodont »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #67
kurthr wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The success of Didi in China has been interesting. They have largely co-opted the taxi pools in Beijing/Shanghai/Shenzhen by allowing you to bid/pay the driver to pick up riders. It has changed dramatically in only a few years. Although locals tell me it is illegal you can wait over an hour and a hundred green-lit taxis before one will stop to pick-up someone without an app that is willing to bid a few yuan. Train st…

This highlights why many governments dislike ride hailing services. As riding hailing becomes dominant (with their rise only being enabled by being able to skirt regulations) it creates a transportation system where one needs a mobile phone to participate. This excludes low income persons and persons with low technical literacy. The way that ride hailing slices away only part of the population and ignores the rest is…

In the extreme situation that these services somehow killed traditional public transit, we'd figure it out. This is not a hard problem to solve. Imagine an iPad inside a bus stop.

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

#97

Post by danjoc »

graton wrote: post #65

If you can't read this article but you have a Facebook account then you can create this as a bookmarklet: javascript:window.location.href='https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href); Then go to the WSJ.com page and click the bookmarklet, it takes you to Facebook, which then offers to take you to WSJ.com, and then you can read the article.

I have to have Facebook to access the web.

Net neutrality.

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

#98

Post by dragonwriter »

marenkay wrote: post #62
1undo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it a scam? It gave me a ride to the airport for $26 bucks. I took a cab once and it cost over $50 bucks. My need some tweaks here and therem but overall its a great service for customers

The missing $24 were health insurance, car insurance, pension payments for the driver etc. All not being paid. Uber is no ride share service, it is a test project to figure out if modern society will accept a larger lower income working class without any social security, and that is what all investment firms bet on.

> The missing $24 were health insurance, car insurance, pension payments for the driver etc.

Car insurance, maybe; car companies don't pay health insurance or pensions either for their drivers, who are also characterized as contractors rather than employees.

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

#99

Post by xocyabencl »

sulam wrote: post #92
xocyabencl wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common stock is worth less than preferred. Most stock is not preferred. Therefore there was never $70B worth of Uber stock in existence.

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.

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

#100

Post by adjkant »

graton wrote: post #65

If you can't read this article but you have a Facebook account then you can create this as a bookmarklet: javascript:window.location.href='https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href); Then go to the WSJ.com page and click the bookmarklet, it takes you to Facebook, which then offers to take you to WSJ.com, and then you can read the article.

outline.com makes this process a lot easier. Go there, paste link, read.

https://outline.com/S9t4AN

Post reply on HN