4 ms·

For those saying this IPO is happening now due to market slowdown, Uber's CEO has been speaking of a 2019 IPO for a while[1]. I am not an investment banker, to

For those saying this IPO is happening now due to market slowdown, Uber's CEO has been speaking of a 2019 IPO for a while[1]. I am not an investment banker, to me this seems far more pre-planned than a last minute rush before a heavy correction, no? For those who do know the space well, how far ahead would one be able to plan to time this right to happen to coincide with the current trends in the market? [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-uber-ceo-says-company-could-go-public-in-18-months-1504119090 https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-uber-ceo-says-company-could... , Aug 30, 2017

lawrenceyan 8y ago
They rushed the IPO date from 2020 to 2019. That should definitely make you think.
- pfarnsworth 8y ago
  No they didn't. Ever since the new CEO joined, he said 2019.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - lawrenceyan 8y ago
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ceo-idUSKCN1BA0JL https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ceo-idUSKCN1BA0JL > "His plans include rebuilding Uber’s culture and growing market share as well as possibly conducting an initial public offering in 18 to 36 months, according to people who attended the meeting. It is common for venture capital-backed companies to signal an IPO at a vague time in the future." That Uber has chosen to go towards an earlier IPO rather than later from the upper end of 36 months to the lower end of 18 months is a fact. You can definitely argue that choosing to IPO earlier isn't necessarily a negative thing, but you can't argue away the fact that Uber has chosen an earlier timeline over a later one. Dara has never given a hard date for an IPO by the way, so I'm not sure what you mean by your statement of "he's always said it would be in 2019".
    - pfarnsworth 8y ago
      What you're saying is absolute bullshit. https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/uber-ceo-says-2019-is-the-target-for-ipo/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/uber-ceo-says-2019-is-the-... He publicly stated over a year ago that 2019 was the year to IPO. To characterize this as a "rush" is being disingenuous. The 36 months that you're pointing to was never public, so who knows if was even correct or what the context was. His first PUBLIC statement above was 2019, and that was only 3 months after he joined Uber, so 2019 has been the year he has ALWAYS stated publicly.
      - lawrenceyan 8y ago
        There was consideration of a wide range of timelines. Given the information we have, it seems like this range was most probably within the stated 18-36 months. A decision was ultimately made to choose an earlier timeline over a later one. Again, this is an irrefutable statement, a fundamental fact of reality. The only thing that we can discuss and try to figure out from that then, is whether this choice of an earlier IPO over a later one means something. In my opinion, it does. Is this a basis with which we can at least agree on? A discussion without some kind of common foundation to derive from is meaningless otherwise.
wolco 8y ago
The news story is happening because of yesterday's news
tryptophan 8y ago
>For those who do know the space well, how far ahead would one be able to plan to time this right to happen to coincide with the current trends in the market? Planning to avoid a recession is impossible, so I guess a few days? Financial news is primarily written to generate clicks, and nothing does that better than fear. Remember that. These conspiracy theories that they have some inside knowledge about a correction and are trying to get ahead of it happening need to stop. The problem is that Uber is probably over-valued, and they want to get in before Lyft which has a much lower (and more reasonable) valuation to hopefully capture some of the market's ride-sharing euphoria before lyft takes and dissipates it all, forcing uber to take a lower valuation and make their investors unhapy.
- patothon 8y ago
  Don't they have different valuations because Lyft is a pure player while Uber has multiple product lines?
samstave 8y ago
It was well know that both uber and lyft were in competition to whomever would ipo first. Im sure execs at uber are collectively yelling at their council for fucking this up and being second - it has an immediate color of their IPO being secondary, reactionary, rushed, etc and thus impacts their price accordingly.
rayshan 8y ago
Companies usually start to think and prep about IPOs 2 ~ 3 years out. The actual IPO process takes 6 ~ 9 months. People have crammed the process into just 3 months! I built a tool [1] to help startups assess IPO readiness. It's kinda fun to run it against your own employer. [1] https://ipo-ready.com/ https://ipo-ready.com/
- gberger 8y ago
  What's the privacy policy on your tool? The data that I enter, do you have access to it?
  - rayshan 8y ago
    Not at all, but you're welcome to share the results with us and get additional help / advice. I won't sell you on how seriously we take security and privacy. I built IPO Ready with IPO lawyers and let's just say they don't mess around. Details are in the Terms of Use in the footer.
    - nihonde 8y ago
      IAAL. It’s odd that Orrick doesnt mention how the data submitted will be handled. It’s not addressed in the Terms of Use, and there doesn’t seem to be any privacy policy. Also, the fact that you side-stepped a very straightforward question (“What will you do with my data?”) by citing the bona fides of your lawyers is a red flag. Just saying...
      - estsauver 8y ago
        I mean, Orrick's name is generally enough for me. They're our lawyers, and talking with any of their partners is like talking with the best engineer you've ever worked with. They just pull apart whatever they're working with. I mean, who knows, but their reputation is worth so much more than a privacy policy that it's actually enough for me.
        8y ago

lawrenceyan 8y ago

They rushed the IPO date from 2020 to 2019. That should definitely make you think.

pfarnsworth 8y ago
No they didn't. Ever since the new CEO joined, he said 2019.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- lawrenceyan 8y ago
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ceo-idUSKCN1BA0JL https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ceo-idUSKCN1BA0JL > "His plans include rebuilding Uber’s culture and growing market share as well as possibly conducting an initial public offering in 18 to 36 months, according to people who attended the meeting. It is common for venture capital-backed companies to signal an IPO at a vague time in the future." That Uber has chosen to go towards an earlier IPO rather than later from the upper end of 36 months to the lower end of 18 months is a fact. You can definitely argue that choosing to IPO earlier isn't necessarily a negative thing, but you can't argue away the fact that Uber has chosen an earlier timeline over a later one. Dara has never given a hard date for an IPO by the way, so I'm not sure what you mean by your statement of "he's always said it would be in 2019".
  - pfarnsworth 8y ago
    What you're saying is absolute bullshit. https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/uber-ceo-says-2019-is-the-target-for-ipo/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/uber-ceo-says-2019-is-the-... He publicly stated over a year ago that 2019 was the year to IPO. To characterize this as a "rush" is being disingenuous. The 36 months that you're pointing to was never public, so who knows if was even correct or what the context was. His first PUBLIC statement above was 2019, and that was only 3 months after he joined Uber, so 2019 has been the year he has ALWAYS stated publicly.
    - lawrenceyan 8y ago
      There was consideration of a wide range of timelines. Given the information we have, it seems like this range was most probably within the stated 18-36 months. A decision was ultimately made to choose an earlier timeline over a later one. Again, this is an irrefutable statement, a fundamental fact of reality. The only thing that we can discuss and try to figure out from that then, is whether this choice of an earlier IPO over a later one means something. In my opinion, it does. Is this a basis with which we can at least agree on? A discussion without some kind of common foundation to derive from is meaningless otherwise.

wolco 8y ago

The news story is happening because of yesterday's news

tryptophan 8y ago

>For those who do know the space well, how far ahead would one be able to plan to time this right to happen to coincide with the current trends in the market? Planning to avoid a recession is impossible, so I guess a few days? Financial news is primarily written to generate clicks, and nothing does that better than fear. Remember that. These conspiracy theories that they have some inside knowledge about a correction and are trying to get ahead of it happening need to stop. The problem is that Uber is probably over-valued, and they want to get in before Lyft which has a much lower (and more reasonable) valuation to hopefully capture some of the market's ride-sharing euphoria before lyft takes and dissipates it all, forcing uber to take a lower valuation and make their investors unhapy.

patothon 8y ago
Don't they have different valuations because Lyft is a pure player while Uber has multiple product lines?

samstave 8y ago

It was well know that both uber and lyft were in competition to whomever would ipo first. Im sure execs at uber are collectively yelling at their council for fucking this up and being second - it has an immediate color of their IPO being secondary, reactionary, rushed, etc and thus impacts their price accordingly.

rayshan 8y ago

Companies usually start to think and prep about IPOs 2 ~ 3 years out. The actual IPO process takes 6 ~ 9 months. People have crammed the process into just 3 months! I built a tool [1] to help startups assess IPO readiness. It's kinda fun to run it against your own employer. [1] https://ipo-ready.com/ https://ipo-ready.com/

gberger 8y ago
What's the privacy policy on your tool? The data that I enter, do you have access to it?
- rayshan 8y ago
  Not at all, but you're welcome to share the results with us and get additional help / advice. I won't sell you on how seriously we take security and privacy. I built IPO Ready with IPO lawyers and let's just say they don't mess around. Details are in the Terms of Use in the footer.
  - nihonde 8y ago
    IAAL. It’s odd that Orrick doesnt mention how the data submitted will be handled. It’s not addressed in the Terms of Use, and there doesn’t seem to be any privacy policy. Also, the fact that you side-stepped a very straightforward question (“What will you do with my data?”) by citing the bona fides of your lawyers is a red flag. Just saying...
    - estsauver 8y ago
      I mean, Orrick's name is generally enough for me. They're our lawyers, and talking with any of their partners is like talking with the best engineer you've ever worked with. They just pull apart whatever they're working with. I mean, who knows, but their reputation is worth so much more than a privacy policy that it's actually enough for me.
      - 8y ago