New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
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Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#2What a surprise.
Can we break down the numbers on how much they'd likely receive from an IPO vs their burn rate? It's hard to imagine that an IPO would deal with most of their problems.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15116399 is a good analysis.
Also, non-paywalled article: http://archive.is/hOt4v (Thanks to philippnagel for pointing out this trick.)
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#3That was the plan all along. Travis didn't want to IPO so soon.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#4This is wonderful news. This is how capitalism is supposed to work. I wonder if the recent uproar around uber could have mitigated by publicizing this earlier.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#5I'm going to re-post one of my previous comments on this topic because I think it's relevant:
"In my opinion, all they need is someone who is demonstrably competent and experienced to stabilize the ship and steer it towards an IPO.
There's no need for the candidate to be a visionary or meddle drastically with something that's already working extraordinarily well. That part is largely done - the Uber machine is mature and chugging along.
A seasoned operator needs to come in to provide PR cover, put in some basic organizational guardrails and rebuild the executive ranks to get the company IPO ready. Hiring a CFO is probably top priority as well as getting PR back on track.
Those two moves alone would suppress external distractions and start the IPO process by having someone working on it full-time (CFO)."
Original comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15113953
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So I think this is pretty much par for course. Dara will likely be laser focused on removing distractions and kicking off the IPO process and shepherding it along. In fact, there's probably a clause in his employment contract that gives him some kind of large bonus for successfully delivering an IPO within XYZ timeframe.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#6I'm going to re-post one of my previous comments on this topic because I think it's relevant: "In my opinion, all they need is someone who is demonstrably competent and experienced to stabilize the ship and steer it towards an IPO. There's no need for the candidate to be a visionary or meddle drastically with something that's already working extraordinarily well. That part is largely done - the Uber machine is mature…
Good point. From the outside it does appear Travis go caught up in himself more than focusing on his real role.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#7IPO would really just be a way to cash out investors with no real return on the horizon for the new shareholders?
Speaking from their current burn rate, lawsuit, potential new technology/driverless cars.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#8IPO would really just be a way to cash out investors with no real return on the horizon for the new shareholders? Speaking from their current burn rate, lawsuit, potential new technology/driverless cars.
At much as you may hate Uber it is an unstoppable juggernaut. Being profitable is not impossible and settling everything is just a question of money, and fairly small sums at that. It may not be worth $100B, but it is going to be worth a ton.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#9I'm going to re-post one of my previous comments on this topic because I think it's relevant: "In my opinion, all they need is someone who is demonstrably competent and experienced to stabilize the ship and steer it towards an IPO. There's no need for the candidate to be a visionary or meddle drastically with something that's already working extraordinarily well. That part is largely done - the Uber machine is mature…
Good point. From the outside it does appear Travis go caught up in himself more than focusing on his real role.
Seems to me he was more focused on building and growing the business, while at the same time preventing existential long-term threats (although with hiccups along the way), than wasting time preparing for an IPO .
Uber is still at risk to lose their current monopolistic world market share, everybody knows it (Travis too), and they need to work and fight hard 24/7 to retain it. IPO is a distraction.
Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months
#10This is wonderful news. This is how capitalism is supposed to work. I wonder if the recent uproar around uber could have mitigated by publicizing this earlier.
Capitalism is supposed to work this way? VCs investing billions of dollars in an unprofitable company which continues to be unprofitable for years after the fact. A company which has two real paths to profitability: (1) achieving autonomous vehicles and ending the jobs of tens of thousands of people or (2) obtaining enough market power to raise prices from their current, subsidized level. A company which only exists in the first place because they trampled all over local laws.
This is a fun-house mirror version of capitalism.