[Jaobidu]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/...rticles/2018-01-05/uber-co-founder-kalanick-is-said-to-plan-sale-of-29-of-stake

 

[anteetr]

Of course it will.

He would be stupid not to cash in half of his winning lottery tickets. After you got $1.4 billion in the bank the rest is gravy

 

[Lightning1181]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/...rticles/2018-01-05/uber-co-founder-kalanick-is-said-to-plan-sale-of-29-of-stake

As do most of the drivers who actually have half a brain, I am not happy with the way that Goober treats us. That being said, lets take a look at the whole picture. Instead of wishing ill will on Goober, lets take a look at our bank accounts for a second. Most drivers are part time and do the gig for supplemental income, then there are those that do it full time (and a few who claim to do it full time but turn down 90% of the rides given to them but that is another topic for later) we all make something from this particular gig. The bottom line is if Goober goes away, so does your supplemental income. That beer money dries up, the extra cash that paid for your pool liner - poof gone. Is that what you really want? In a way we all have become very accustomed to the income that Goober brings in to our banks. Do not think for one minute that there is a new and better way to earn on the horizon, it just isn't. Lyft would fail as well as goober just under the weight of the influx of pox into Lyfts poorly performing business plan.
I agree that Goober could treat us better, but change is never overnight. But wishing and hoping for Goober to fail is not in OUR best interests.

 

[Jaobidu]

As do most of the drivers who actually have half a brain, I am not happy with the way that Goober treats us. That being said, lets take a look at the whole picture. Instead of wishing ill will on Goober, lets take a look at our bank accounts for a second. Most drivers are part time and do the gig for supplemental income, then there are those that do it full time (and a few who claim to do it full time but turn down 90% of the rides given to them but that is another topic for later) we all make something from this particular gig. The bottom line is if Goober goes away, so does your supplemental income. That beer money dries up, the extra cash that paid for your pool liner - poof gone. Is that what you really want? In a way we all have become very accustomed to the income that Goober brings in to our banks. Do not think for one minute that there is a new and better way to earn on the horizon, it just isn't. Lyft would fail as well as goober just under the weight of the influx of pox into Lyfts poorly performing business plan.
I agree that Goober could treat us better, but change is never overnight. But wishing and hoping for Goober to fail is not in OUR best interests.

i do not wish for it to fail...
just saying with all the hits its taking will it survive as in a question of... how much more money can uber bleed?

 

[Lightning1181]

i do not wish for it to fail...
just saying with all the hits its taking will it survive as in a question of... how much more money can uber bleed?

The bleeding will stop when they have bled out the 64 billion that is in the coffers now. Looking at the large influx of investor money since TK was outed, I think that the smarter investors see this as a future profit center, albeit with some failures and ticks long the way. Every corporation in history has had some slips and falls, even the great GE and IBM, but then again these 2 were so big that they could afford to re-invent themselves and keep on going. Also, GE and IBM were considered to big to fail, but look at IBM for the last 10 years, constantly re-inventing it's brand.

 

[everythingsuber]

The bleeding will stop when they have bled out the 64 billion that is in the coffers now. Looking at the large influx of investor money since TK was outed, I think that the smarter investors see this as a future profit center, albeit with some failures and ticks long the way. Every corporation in history has had some slips and falls, even the great GE and IBM, but then again these 2 were so big that they could afford to re-invent themselves and keep on going. Also, GE and IBM were considered to big to fail, but look at IBM for the last 10 years, constantly re-inventing it's brand.

Uber has 1 investor. That investor offered 30% less than the market value and there was a stampede by previous investors to grab it. Not seeing any confidence in Ubers future there. Softbank could have offered to buy in at a 40 billion dollar valuation and had the same outcome.

 

[Lightning1181]

Uber has 1 investor. That investor offered 30% less than the market value and there was a stampede by previous investors to grab it. Not seeing any confidence in Ubers future there. Softbank could have offered to buy in at a 40 billion dollar valuation and had the same outcome.

Again, the dollar value does not equate the future value. In this case Softbank bought in at a better price than they offered for the same amount of equity. This is not unwise business practice, and again they were able to board this bohemoth of a corporation for a potential ride into profitability.

 

[everythingsuber]

Again, the dollar value does not equate the future value. In this case Softbank bought in at a better price than they offered for the same amount of equity. This is not unwise business practice, and again they were able to board this bohemoth of a corporation for a potential ride into profitability.

Potential is an ugly word. Softbank are playing a long game and have substantial investments in Lyft, Didi Chuxing, Gett etc. Uber has to stop losing money within the 12 months or it simply runs out of money. Can't raise prices and has taken as much from the drivers as possible? IPO is unlikely because that will mean serious scrutiny of the books and having to explain it's business plan and the path to profit. The response to softbanks offer suggests no one at Uber believes there is a future.

 

[ToughTommy]

Been in finance my whole career and to refute whoever said they only have one investor- check again
There going to run out of money in a year -wrong
Won't be able to IPO wrong
The deal with SoftBank had conditions that includes among other things changing the corporate governance meaning it has to have a plan and not a shoot from the hip reactive and then cover up and pay for their mistakes .
SoftBank will make it a more responsible company you don't invest over 10 billion without getting a say.
Don't be surprised post IPO thT rates go up

 

[Jaobidu]

Again, the dollar value does not equate the future value. In this case Softbank bought in at a better price than they offered for the same amount of equity. This is not unwise business practice, and again they were able to board this bohemoth of a corporation for a potential ride into profitability.

Potential is an ugly word. Softbank are playing a long game and have substantial investments in Lyft, Didi Chuxing, Gett etc. Uber has to stop losing money within the 12 months or it simply runs out of money. Can't raise prices and has taken as much from the drivers as possible? IPO is unlikely because that will mean serious scrutiny of the books and having to explain it's business plan and the path to profit. The response to softbanks offer suggests no one at Uber believes there is a future.

Been in finance my whole career and to refute whoever said they only have one investor- check again
There going to run out of money in a year -wrong
Won't be able to IPO wrong
The deal with SoftBank had conditions that includes among other things changing the corporate governance meaning it has to have a plan and not a shoot from the hip reactive and then cover up and pay for their mistakes .
SoftBank will make it a more responsible company you don't invest over 10 billion without getting a say.
Don't be surprised post IPO thT rates go up

Well peeps this just came in...
https://www.recode.net/platform/amp/2018/1/5/16853106/benchmark-900-million-uber-tender

 

[Michael1230nj]

I think it's becoming Obvious that investors are realizing Uber has a much more Difficult path to Profitability then first glance had indicated. Giving away Rides at prices designed to eliminate competition can only go so far. This is and has always been a very low margin Industry. Uber has impacted and taken a very large portion of the Livery Industry the problem is the Profits are just not there. Short Soft Bank that money's gone.

Uber failing is in our interest the lesson learned is Ride Share works Other Company's will pick up the Concept without the unrealistic Goal of extracting Huge Profits for Investment Funds Drivers will receive more of the Revenue and local or statewide Company's will fill the void.

 

[Lightning1181]

I think it's becoming Obvious that investors are realizing Uber has a much more Difficult path to Profitability then first glance had indicated. Giving away Rides at prices designed to eliminate competition can only go so far. This is and has always been a very low margin Industry. Uber has impacted and taken a very large portion of the Livery Industry the problem is the Profits are just not there. Short Soft Bank that money's gone.

Uber failing is in our interest the lesson learned is Ride Share works Other Company's will pick up the Concept without the unrealistic Goal of extracting Huge Profits for Investment Funds Drivers will receive more of the Revenue and local or statewide Company's will fill the void.

Uber's master plan is straight from the "scorched earth" playbook. They fully intend to decimate all the mom-and-pop taxi companies to remove any competition. They are doing this using an interesting twist however, never in the past has any corporation been able to perform this maneuver without spending money on equipment to facilitate it. Think, Goober & Lyft do not own 1 single vehicle between them (give or take any corporate owned) and are using OPME (other people's money & equipment) to attain this goal. In the corporate world, this is genius! So, in the future be prepared for more corporations trying to use this business model to fuel their growth.

 

[SuzeCB]

i do not wish for it to fail...
just saying with all the hits its taking will it survive as in a question of... how much more money can uber bleed?

This same question was asked many times over in the beginning of 2017. And probably 2016, as well.

Every year the speculation begins anew, and Uber Ubers on.

It's the drivers (96% of us) that don't.

Happy 2018.

 

[Jaobidu]

I dont know i keep readin headlines where uber was suppost to reach a 100 billion market value and has only reached like 42 billion i mean i dont know... i guess to me their major plan after all is to have drivers around long enof for those self driving cars to take over... once thats a success than they will see major profit

 

[Caspita]

I dont know i keep readin headlines where uber was suppost to reach a 100 billion market value and has only reached like 42 billion i mean i dont know... i guess to me their major plan after all is to have drivers around long enof for those self driving cars to take over... once thats a success than they will see major profit

self driving cars will be there but I don't think fuber can afford to maintain its own fleet.. nothing more convenient than just collect a 20-50% commission and not have to worry about maintenance, paperwork, etc, etc.. the reason they don't make money is they keep spending in R&D which will never give them back anything lol!

 

[Lightning1181]

self driving cars will be there but I don't think fuber can afford to maintain its own fleet.. nothing more convenient than just collect a 20-50% commission and not have to worry about maintenance, paperwork, etc, etc.. the reason they don't make money is they keep spending in R&D which will never give them back anything lol!

I have long held that the cost to purchase and maintain these types of fleets is very prohibitive, at this point in time. Couple that to the fact that they are virtually cost free with the current model (we own the headaches, they own the profit) makes it very hard to see this business model work the way they are pitching it. Another thing to consider, how does Goober/Lyft service the less densely populated areas (and NJ has more than a few) with a limited fleet of company owned vehicles? Basically they can't, and that is where the drivers who remain will find their earnings. I feel you will see the self-driving cars in densely populated areas that are easily maneuvered by robots, but you will not see them out on the country roads in any of the counties that are not immediately near to NYC or Philly proper. One more final point, the Goober claim that they have 30,000 drivers in NJ alone and considering most of them are part time drivers, still would require a fleet of at least 10,000 cars at a cost of (Volvo's own numbers) $90,000 per car, multiplied by how many states that they would deploy into? That's a whole bunch of $$$ to make little $ in return.
Now the numbers I threw out above are purely speculative, but here is another number to ponder: how much will it cost to maintain this fleet of robots? How much will it cost to retain a towing service to haul these wrecks back to a shop? As car owners we all know the costs associated with owning our own for-hire vehicles out paces the cost if we were not for-hire exponentially.
Boys and girls, I agree with the Caspita, the self driving cars will be here, no doubt, but they are more of a scare tactic when you break the whole propaganda machine down and dissect the parts that comprise the whole. The Grand Wizard hides behind his curtain in Emerald City, but in real life he is an old and broken man, nothing else.

 

[Caspita]

I have long held that the cost to purchase and maintain these types of fleets is very prohibitive, at this point in time. Couple that to the fact that they are virtually cost free with the current model (we own the headaches, they own the profit) makes it very hard to see this business model work the way they are pitching it. Another thing to consider, how does Goober/Lyft service the less densely populated areas (and NJ has more than a few) with a limited fleet of company owned vehicles? Basically they can't, and that is where the drivers who remain will find their earnings. I feel you will see the self-driving cars in densely populated areas that are easily maneuvered by robots, but you will not see them out on the country roads in any of the counties that are not immediately near to NYC or Philly proper. One more final point, the Goober claim that they have 30,000 drivers in NJ alone and considering most of them are part time drivers, still would require a fleet of at least 10,000 cars at a cost of (Volvo's own numbers) $90,000 per car, multiplied by how many states that they would deploy into? That's a whole bunch of $$$ to make little $ in return.
Now the numbers I threw out above are purely speculative, but here is another number to ponder: how much will it cost to maintain this fleet of robots? How much will it cost to retain a towing service to haul these wrecks back to a shop? As car owners we all know the costs associated with owning our own for-hire vehicles out paces the cost if we were not for-hire exponentially.
Boys and girls, I agree with the Caspita, the self driving cars will be here, no doubt, but they are more of a scare tactic when you break the whole propaganda machine down and dissect the parts that comprise the whole. The Grand Wizard hides behind his curtain in Emerald City, but in real life he is an old and broken man, nothing else.

Haha.. that a nice essay .. thx Lightning1181 for enhancing on the topic.. In my personal opinion driverless cars will be deployed more to serve the high end most profitable of the luxury and corporate market where you can more or less expect the cars will be taken better care of by paxes and margins are higher.. after all, they have all the data to make decisions on who gets a 90K car and who gets an ant driven pos lol! I don't expect seeing one of those doing pool/line rides to the supermarket nor the driving through for food haha! But a 4am black car ride to the airport is a different thing.

 

[Jaobidu]

Haha.. that a nice essay .. thx Lightning1181 for enhancing on the topic.. In my personal opinion driverless cars will be deployed more to serve the high end most profitable of the luxury and corporate market where you can more or less expect the cars will be taken better care of by paxes and margins are higher.. after all, they have all the data to make decisions on who gets a 90K car and who gets an ant driven pos lol! I don't expect seeing one of those doing pool/line rides to the supermarket nor the driving through for food haha! But a 4am black car ride to the airport is a different thing.

Thats a good point.. selfless driving cars for the rich..
ants for the poor lol cuz middle class dont exist anymore lol

 

[SuzeCB]

Someone else is Forum or the larger one has speculated that if and when Uber ever gets its self-driving cars, they will be used for corporate account. It's not going to be driving around drunks and the hoi poloi. We will still get to drive the dregs of society. Don't worry