How much do you think Lance Armstrong $100,000 investment in uber is worth today?? Too bad the smaller guys can never get in on these types of investments, yes maybe 1 out of 1000 will make it, but still having an opportunity to invest in such startups is still restricted by most. The other thing that confuses me is that the value was worth $3.7 million when he bought in, now the ipo could be worth up to $120,000,000,000? Just think if this company went public when it was worth say $100,000,000..... The biggest gains are practically gone, it's value has increased over 3,000,000%%% ...think about that 3,000,000% increase in company value since Lance made his investment....these companies wait too long to go public, I wouldn't touch uber with a value of that size. Uber will never ever return the amount on investment it has returned in the last decade, I would say more than 70% of it's value has already been called for... Lance Armstrong was an early investor in Uber. He invested $100,000 through venture capitalist Chris Sacca around 2009 when the company was valued at only $3.7 million. Today, Uber could be worth as much as $120 billion, according to banks readying the company for its IPO next year. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/06/lance-armstrong-says-his-investment-in-uber-saved-our-family.html
Personally, I could give less than 2 shits. The guy was a hero to cycling enthusiasts in the 90s and aughts, and it turns out he cheated for his whole career. So every win was fake, just like sim trading. Loser.
Well you can. You can participate in what is called "private equities" or "private equity funds". https://business.financialpost.com/...rs-can-play-in-the-private-equity-big-leagues They've been pedalling it for years to small guys. Apparently this is the venue for small guys to get in on startup companies when they are just starting up before making it big.
It might be losing money right now, but Uber a fantastic business with a wide moat. They are completing something like 15 million rides per DAY globally. Let's figure they do that number 360 days per year. So, 5.4 billion rides per year. If they can eventually pull $2 per ride down to their bottomline, that $10.8 billion per year pre-tax. Slap a modest 12X multiple and you are looking at a $130 billion valuation, without having to resort to much magical thinking that you get with so many of these IPOs. Then they have this wonderful data stream of every trip driven, tens of thousands of drivers, and millions of customers with the Uber app installed on their phone. All sorts of ways to extract extra revenue out of those buckets as well. I'm a skeptic when it comes to most tech-IPOs, but Uber seems like an absolute winner to me. The only risk I see is that the gov't will slap them with the dreaded "monopoly" tag and look to extract a pint of blood and over-regulate the business.
The tech is matured and it doesn't take that much to compete. Uber has abandoned quite a few countries by now. Their valuation only holds if they can remain relevant. Even then $120bn seems ridiculous...
You are dreaming. First of all uber is on the retreat all over Europe and Asia. In most Asian markets they were forced to give up and sell their business to regional operators. Lots of unionized taxi pressure in Europe. Then your 2 dollar assumption is wishful thinking at best. The place I love Uber already charges more than taxis and a 2 dollar raise will entirely kick them out of the whole market. I am speaking of HK. According to travel experience this picture is very similar in other cities outside the US. I believe Uber has very limited growth potential and ultimately they will fail against either regulators that are in the pockets of taxi operators or much more powerful competition. Look at China where Uber got badly beaten up. Their entry into food deliveries is equally failing.
Tell that to the guys who didn't inject and lost over and over again, even though on equal terms they were probably better than Armstrong.