UBER - Uber Technologies, Inc.
| Previous Close | 28.87 |
| Open | 28.95 |
| Bid | 30.14 x 800 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 900 |
| Day's Range | 28.94 - 30.40 |
| 52 Week Range | 28.31 - 47.08 |
| Volume | 10,298,616 |
| Avg. Volume | 9,460,243 |
| Market Cap | 51.221B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | N/A |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -3.01 |
| Earnings Date | Nov. 4, 2019 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 49.53 |
- Bloomberg
Why Uber Is Buying a Majority Stake in Online Grocer Cornershop
Oct.11 -- Uber Technologies Inc. plans to buy a majority stake in online grocer Cornershop, a deal designed to extend its geographic reach and bolster profits by bundling food delivery with rides. Bloomberg's Lizette Chapman reports on "Bloomberg Technology."
- Bloomberg
WeWork Said to Weigh Bailout That Hands Control to SoftBank
(Bloomberg) -- WeWork is considering a bailout that will hand control of the co-working giant to SoftBank Group Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter, one of two main options to rescue the once high-flying startup.The Japanese investment powerhouse controlled by billionaire Masayoshi Son is convinced it can turn around the cash-strapped American company with the right financial controls in place, the person said, asking not to be identified talking about internal deliberations. WeWork’s board and backers however are also weighing another option: JPMorgan Chase & Co. is leading discussions about a $5 billion debt package, Bloomberg has reported.Either rescue package would ease a cash crunch that could leave the office-sharing company short of funds as soon as next month. The office-sharing startup had been headed toward one of the year’s most hotly anticipated IPOs before prospective investors balked at certain financial metrics and flawed governance, turning the American giant into a cautionary tale of private market exuberance and costing the company’s top executive his job.The fast-growing, money-losing startup had been counting on a stock listing -- and a $6 billion loan contingent on a successful IPO -- to meet its cash needs.Son, SoftBank Risk Too Much With WeWork Takeover: Tim CulpanRead more: WeWork Is in Talks for $5 Billion Debt Package With LendersThe Wall Street Journal first reported that SoftBank may be discussing a deal to gain control of WeWork. Representatives for the Japanese company weren’t immediately available for comment Monday, a national holiday.SoftBank is already WeWork’s biggest shareholder but the proposed deal would shore up its control of the startup, the person said, declining to elaborate on when a decision on the competing offers might be reached. The Japanese company is in advanced talks to acquire more shares at a significantly lower valuation than the $47 billion WeWork sported in January, two people familiar with those discussions said last week. The New York Times has reported that members of the board would meet Monday to decide on which bailout to select.If the board ops for the SoftBank deal, the Japanese company will be taking on a troubled enterprise at a time it’s struggling to convince the market about its longer-term investment vision. It’s also busy wooing potential investors for a successor to its record-breaking Vision Fund.Read more: SoftBank’s Son Is ‘Embarrassed’ By Record, Impatient to ImproveSon is going through a rocky stretch after repositioning his company from a telecommunications operator into an investment conglomerate, with stakes in scores of startups around the world. He built a personal fortune of about $14 billion with spectacularly successful bets on companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. But SoftBank’s shares are down about 30% from their peak this year as investors, unnerved by WeWork and Uber Technologies Inc.‘s disappointing debut, grow skittish about startup valuations. In an interview with the Nikkei Business magazine, Son said he is unhappy with how far short his accomplishments to date have fallen of his goals.WeWork and Uber may be losing money now, but they will be substantially profitable in 10 years’ time, Son said in that interview. But at a private retreat for portfolio companies late last month, he had a different message: get profitable soon. At the gathering, held at the five-star Langham resort in Pasadena, California, Son also stressed the importance of good governance. Just days later, SoftBank led the ouster of WeWork’s controversial co-founder Adam Neumann.“WeWork has retained a major Wall Street financial institution to arrange a financing,” a representative for the U.S. company said in a statement on Sunday. “Approximately 60 financing sources have signed confidentiality agreements and are meeting with the company’s management and its bankers over the course of this past week and this coming week.”(Updates with details of SoftBank investments from the sixth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net;Michelle F. Davis in New York at mdavis194@bloomberg.net;Davide Scigliuzzo in New York at dscigliuzzo2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, ;Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Virginia Van NattaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- ACCESSWIRE
FILING DEADLINE--Kuznicki Law PLLC Announces Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of COF, DBX and UBER
CEDARHURST, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 13, 2019 / The securities litigation law firm of Kuznicki Law PLLC issues the following notice on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly traded companies. Shareholders who purchased shares in these companies during the dates listed below are encouraged to contact the firm regarding possible appointment as lead plaintiff and a preliminary estimate of their recoverable losses. If you wish to choose counsel to represent you and the class, you must apply to be appointed lead plaintiff and be selected by the Court.
- Reuters
Lyft follows Uber in suing NYC over cruising time caps
The lawsuit, filed by the San Francisco-based ride-hail company on Friday, argues that the cruising rule is arbitrary and threatens to shift business away from ride-hailing companies like Lyft in favour of taxis. "This rule is not a serious attempt to address congestion, and would hurt riders and drivers in New York," Lyft spokesman Campbell Matthews said in a statement to Reuters. The "cruising cap" rule, implemented by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), sets a 31% limit on how much time drivers of app-based vehicles may drive without passengers in Manhattan south of 96th Street, meaning they would have to have fares at least 69% of driving time.
- Yahoo Finance
'One app to rule them all is dead': How Uber and Lyft can get disrupted
In Berlin, companies like Uber don't have a dominant hold on transportation. Instead, many companies compete for a slice of the market.
- Bloomberg
NYC Cabbies Say ‘No-Cost’ Bailout Would Avoid Financial Ruin
(Bloomberg) -- Bill de Blasio campaigned for New York mayor -- and for president -- vowing to help low-income workers and the least fortunate. But financially desperate taxi drivers, devastated by competition from Uber Technologies Inc. and similar companies, say he has abandoned them.The 22,000-member Taxi Workers Alliance says it has a plan at almost no net expense to the city: bailing out thousands of struggling drivers who can’t afford to repay expensive loans they took out from private lenders to buy city taxi-operating medallions. De Blasio counters that it would cost billions of dollars to solve the problem and says the federal government should pay.The plan would have the city take over the loans from private lenders for about 25% of their original value, as some private-equity companies have done. The city’s upfront expense would be $900 million or more, covering about 6,000 financially strapped cabbies owing an average of $600,000 each. But almost all the city’s cost would be recouped as drivers paid off their reduced debts, the drivers’ group says.“This would save me. I could afford this,” said Mohammed Hossain, 47, who bought his medallion for $854,000 in a city auction five years ago. “This was my dream, to own my business. The bank, the city, all made money on my dream.”Hossain owes about $705,000 to two banks for a medallion he says is now worth about $100,000. He recently renegotiated with the lenders, cutting in half his monthly payments to $1,500, but extending the loan term to 50 years. He intends to declare bankruptcy in two years when his car lease expires.Mulling BankruptcyAbout 26% of the city’s cabbies, like Hossain, are contemplating bankruptcy, and more than half are behind on their monthly bills, according to a 2018 report to the mayor. The report contained no recommendations for city-aided bailouts of loans that drivers now say they can’t pay. At least nine drivers have committed suicide in the past two years as the economic crisis has worsened, including one who shot himself outside City Hall’s front gate last year.The city reaped about $850 million in revenue from sales of 1,000 medallions from 2004 to 2014, promoting them as solid investments before 80,000 Uber drivers hit the city’s streets. That’s why city officials should be responsible for solving the problem, said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance.“The mayor thinks it would cost billions because they haven’t paid enough attention,” said Desai, who has promoted the plan to the administration and in testimony to the City Council and U.S. Congress. “Soon, we plan to be on the streets in masses so our voices will be amplified and heard.”The mayor is insisting that any driver bailout would involve direct cash payments covering the full amounts of each loan, a solution that his administration has said would cost as much as $13 billion. He has called on the federal government to take care of the problem.“There’s no way -- that figure is in the billions, you are talking about a lot of money that would go right to banks,” de Blasio said during an Oct. 7 WNYC radio interview. “If we did that, it would come out of schools, it would come out of police, it would come out of many other things. We just don’t have that money.”Driver AssistanceThe mayor has instead touted administration measures such as waiving about $10 million in medallion renewal fees, creating a drivers’ assistance center with financial and mental-health counselors, and placing a cap on the licensing of any more for-hire vehicles.The mayor’s stance pits him against leaders in the City Council who are willing to spend money to help the drivers. Ydanis Rodriguez, chairman of its Transportation Committee, says he and his colleagues, including Council Speaker Corey Johnson, agree that the city is partly to blame for the problem and for that reason “we bear some responsibility to fix it.”The proposed debt purchases will be one of several plans that he and others will push during budget negotiations with the mayor that begin next month, Rodriguez said.De Blasio doubts lenders would accept taking a big loss on their loans, said mayoral spokesman Seth Stein.Marblegate Asset Management LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut, has bought about 300 medallions and also some loans at a fraction of their original face value, according to a person familiar with the matter.At Aspire Federal Credit Union, based in Clark, New Jersey, general counsel Robert Bedford said the company would be interested in selling its 75 distressed taxi-medallion loans at a loss. “If the city wanted to talk to us, we would certainly be willing to discuss it,” he said.(Updates sourcing information in penultimate paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, William SelwayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- ACCESSWIRE
SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims On Behalf of Investors of Uber Technologies Inc. - UBER
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 11, 2019 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Uber Technologies Inc. ("Uber" or the "Company") (NYSE:UBER). Such investors ...
- Bloomberg
Gates-Backed Vir Biotechnology Flops in Trading Debut
(Bloomberg) -- Vir Biotechnology Inc. fell almost 30% in its trading debut, adding to a series of IPO disappointments in an industry that was seen as at least partly immune to the ills afflicting this year’s newly public tech giants.San Francisco-based Vir sold 7.14 million shares Thursday for $20 each -- the bottom of its marketed range -- to raise $143 million. The shares opened Friday at $16.15 and fell from there, closing at $14.02 to give the company a market value of about $1.5 billion.Vir’s backers include SoftBank Vision Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte.Listing stumbles by high-profile companies including We Co., the parent company of WeWork, have cast a pale over IPOs, which had thrived this year in the U.S. despite trade tensions with China and stock market volatility.Shares of the 146 companies that have gone public in the U.S. this year are now down 0.2% based on a weighted average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The losers include the $8.1 billion listing by Uber Technologies Inc., whose shares are down 33% since its May IPO.Peloton, PostmatesThe two $1 billion-plus listings in September, SmileDirectClub Inc. and Peloton Interactive Inc., are down 52% and 23%, respectively. Postmates Inc., which submitted a confidential filing in February, is one of the companies that could delay its listing to 2020, people familiar with the matter have said.Of six biotech and biomedical IPOs that were set for the past two weeks, only one has lived up to expectations. Aprea Therapeutics Inc. priced its shares in the middle of its marketed range and has climbed about 27% from the offer price.BioNTech SE, German cancer treatment firm, downsized its offering Wednesday to raise $150 million and is now down 7.2% from its offer price.Bottom RangeLast week, Viela Bio Inc. and Frequency Therapeutics Inc. both priced their share sales at the bottom of their target ranges. While Viela is up 1.1%, Frequency Therapeutics has fallen 7.2% since then.ADC Therapeutics SA withdrew its IPO application last week citing “adverse market conditions.”Vir, founded in 2016, develop treatments for infectious diseases. Its most advanced treatment is for hepatitis B is in phase 2 clinical trial and it has a flu treatment in phase 1 trial, according to its prospectus.The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & CO., Cowen Inc. and Barclays Plc. The shares are trading on Nasdaq Global Select Market Friday under the symbol VIR.(Updates with closing share price in second paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Crystal Tse in New York at ctse44@bloomberg.net;Michael Hytha in San Francisco at mhytha@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Matthew MonksFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- ACCESSWIRE
The Klein Law Firm Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of NTAP, TME and UBER
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 11, 2019 / The Klein Law Firm announces that class action complaints have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following companies. There is no cost to participate ...
- GlobeNewswire
INVESTOR ALERT - Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) - Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Notifies Investors of Class Action and Lead Deadline: December 3, 2019
Attorney Advertising -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Uber Technologies, Inc. (“Uber” or “the Company”) (UBER) and certain of its officers, on behalf of shareholders who purchased Uber securities pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and related prospectus (collectively, the "Registration Statement") issued in connection with Uber's May 2019 initial public stock offering (the "IPO" or the "Offering"). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws.
- Bloomberg
Uber to Acquire Chile Grocery Startup Walmart Failed to Buy
(Bloomberg) -- Uber Technologies Inc. plans to buy a majority stake in online grocer Cornershop, a deal designed to extend its geographic reach and bolster profits by bundling food delivery with rides.The move, which is subject to regulatory approval, could end uncertainty for the Santiago, Chile-based startup backed by Accel and other venture investors. Walmart Inc. announced its intention more than a year ago to purchase Cornershop outright for $225 million and re-sell the company to its Mexican subsidiary, only to have Mexican regulators oppose the move in June for antitrust reasons.Cornershop is the largest home delivery platform in Mexico and Chile. The app allows users to order groceries from a variety of stores such as Costco Wholesale Corp., Petco Holdings Inc., Walmart, bakeries and pharmacies, and have everything delivered at once, usually within 90 minutes. The items usually carry a higher price tag on top of the delivery fee. The four-year-old startup also operates in Peru and Canada. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.The arrangement could play a significant role in Uber’s strategy of layering more profitable services atop ride-sharing. Since the company’s disappointing initial public offering, the share price has dropped more than 30% and Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi has sought to reassure investors that Uber is focused on turning a profit and continuing to grow.When Walmart attempted to buy Cornershop, analysts saw the purchase as a way for the retailer to increase its e-commerce presence with the help of an established app that brought a giant database of users and more importantly, its consumer patterns.“It’s already positioned, it knows the market well and it was going to accelerate this process for Walmart,” said Marisol Huerta, an analyst at Banco Ve Por Mas. “It’s the same strategy for Uber.”The acquisition by Uber means the San Francisco-based company will expand on its Eats offering with the ability to deliver not only prepared food from restaurants, but a wide set of groceries, Huerta said. “They’ll be entering a new market but they’ll already have a big data base and the structure to operate in it.”Uber says it expects the deal to close in early 2020. Cornershop will continue to operate under its current leadership, reporting to a board with majority Uber representation.“Whether it’s getting a ride, ordering food from your favorite restaurant, or soon, getting groceries delivered, we want Uber to be the operating system for your everyday life,” Khosrowshahi said in a statement announcing the deal.(Updates with comments from analyst in the sixth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.net;Andrea Navarro in Mexico City at anavarro30@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Uber Scrambles Into Groceries With Cornershop. Why?
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- But why?That’s the question I keep asking as Uber Technologies Inc. makes the case that driving people around cities gives it a leg up on moving physical goods from place to place — restaurant food, freight by truck and groceries.Uber on Friday expanded those efforts by agreeing to buy a majority of Cornershop, which helps supermarkets, pharmacies and food retailers deliver their goods. It had operated mostly in Mexico and Chile before a recent expansion. Walmart Inc. agreed last year to buy Cornershop for $225 million, but Mexican regulators blocked the deal. Uber didn’t disclose its purchase price. Uber’s pitch is that having drivers drop people at work or transport them on date nights gives it an opportunity to also deliver burritos, bananas or movie theater popcorn to people’s homes. (That last one is a real thing, somehow.) Executives have said that restaurant delivery and experiments with other categories such as groceries give Uber couriers more work, particularly outside of the peak demand for car rides. This all sounds nice, until you think about it for more than five seconds.Every time Uber wants to enter a new delivery or logistics category, it needs to strike relationships with a new class of companies. Restaurants are a finicky bunch, and so are grocery store chains or companies that want to ship goods by truck.I have been stunned that Uber executives aren’t pressed to justify the strategic and financial efficiencies among their various businesses. On the consumer side of the equation, I may be more likely to order Uber Eats for dinner or grocery staples if I am used to taking an Uber car ride. But it’s not clear there is overlap on the supply side among ersatz taxi drivers, restaurants, grocery stores and other retailers. Does Uber’s expertise in matching drivers with riders really help the company build or hook into point-of-sale systems for restaurant orders and make sure owners get the support they need? Can it help a grocery store with inventory management, staffing changes or other complexities when adding home delivery to a conventional physical store? Cornershop’s built-up experience in that area won’t go away, but neither is it clear whether Uber’s ownership will help.Nor has Uber ever said whether the people driving passengers around are the same ones picking up restaurant orders or groceries for delivery. For one thing, in many big cities — including many of the ones that Cornershop serves — deliveries of food or groceries are done by motorbike or bicycle because that’s more efficient in traffic-clogged areas. Is that courier on a scooter delivering a sack of bread and milk in Mexico City one minute and then taking someone to the airport the next?And it is difficult to imagine how the particulars of Uber’s model will ever make for an efficient grocery delivery operation compared with what more specialized players will offer. Compare it, for example, with Ocado Group Plc, the British company that has been an early innovator in this space and will soon deploy its technology in the U.S. through a partnership with grocery behemoth Kroger Co.Ocado’s delivery vans are designed for ferrying fresh food efficiently. Vehicles have separate compartments for items that must be kept chilled. Totes are loaded into them in a specific order based on the driver’s route. The heaviest totes are placed in the middle racks within the van, making it easier for the driver to unload than if they had to be pulled down from a high shelf or hoisted off the floor.It defies logic that a fleet of contract workers at the helm of wildly different vehicles will be able to deliver grocery orders as productively. And that matters enormously for the profitability of these orders.The big conundrum for Uber is it must keep expanding, even if it doesn’t work. Growth has significantly slowed in Uber’s core business of rides on demand, which makes it essential for the company to find fresh, higher-growth businesses. (That may explain why Uber shares are trading higher on the Cornershop news.) This was also a company predicated on having a global reach and for which car rides were billed as the start of a sprawling empire to move people or goods in every imaginable way.Sprawl, growth and ambition are how Uber could justify a rapidly increasing valuation up to what investment bankers pitched as a possible valuation of $120 billion in an initial public offering. To put it mildly, Uber has not delivered. The share price has fallen about 33% since the IPO in May, and the stock is even below the level at which Uber sold shares in private transactions nearly five years ago. Ouch. The company has become a poster child for overinflated tech startups.A big reason Uber has been a flop for investors is the company has not made an effective case for its financial viability — even in its most established category of car rides. So it’s odd that Uber would make forays into additional logistically tricky and financially uncertain categories such as groceries without having a better story to tell. \--With assistance from Sarah Halzack.To contact the author of this story: Shira Ovide at sovide@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Niemi at dniemi1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shira Ovide is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. She previously was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance
A key trait that female founders and VCs have
A lot of venture capitalists are rethinking growth at all costs, and sending that message to their founders.
- ACCESSWIRE
The Klein Law Firm Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of MDP, MYGN and UBER
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 11, 2019 / The Klein Law Firm announces that class action complaints have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following companies. There is no cost to participate ...
- ACCESSWIRE
INVESTOR ALERT - Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) - Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Notifies Investors of Class Action and Lead Plaintiff Deadline: December 3, 2019
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 11, 2019 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Uber Technologies, Inc. ("Uber" or "the Company") (UBER) and certain of its officers, on behalf of shareholders who purchased Uber securities pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and related prospectus (collectively, the "Registration Statement") issued in connection with Uber's May 2019 initial public stock offering (the "IPO" or the "Offering"). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws.
- Reuters
Uber to buy Chile's Cornershop as it sets sights on delivering groceries
Uber Technologies Inc said on Friday it would buy a majority stake in Chilean online grocery provider Cornershop as the ride hailing company seeks to widen its fast-growing food delivery app to include groceries and other goods. The deal for an undisclosed sum, which follows Uber's disappointing IPO in May, would see it expand Santiago-based Cornershop, which now operates in Mexico, Chile, Canada and Peru into "many more countries around the world," Cornershop Chief Executive Oskar Hjertonsson said. The app provides delivery of "groceries to your front door in one hour" from retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp , Walmart Inc and Mexico's Chedraui .
- Business Wire
Uber to Acquire Majority Ownership in Cornershop
Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) today announced an agreement to acquire majority ownership of Cornershop, a leading online grocery provider in Chile, Mexico, and more recently in Peru and Toronto. The investment is expected to close in early 2020, subject to regulatory approval. “Whether it’s getting a ride, ordering food from your favorite restaurant, or soon, getting groceries delivered, we want Uber to be the operating system for your everyday life,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber.
- Investing.com
Uber Expands Delivery Market to Include Groceries; Buys Cornershop
Investing.com - Uber (NYSE:UBER) stock jumped in midday trade on Friday after the ride-sharing company said it is buying a stake in online grocery provider Cornershop.
- Reuters
Uber faces UK tax challenge
Uber Technologies Inc says the UK is seeking to classify the company as a transportation provider, potentially opening it up to new tax charges that could weigh heavily on its business, according to UK accounts filings in recent days. Uber says it could be charged 20% VAT on gross booking fees - the amount passengers pay -- or on service fees charged to drivers, typically about 20-30 percent of the fare. The tax could eat into Uber's margins or force it to increase fares, making it less competitive against rivals, who have previously complained about Uber's non-payment of VAT.
- Bloomberg
WeWork Reveals the Downside of Sarbanes-Oxley
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Big pieces of economic legislation tend to unleash the full power of unintended consequences. Consider Sarbanes-Oxley, the bipartisan law passed in 2002 in the wake of the accounting scandals at Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. It did what it was intended to do, which was ensure companies gave accurate accounts of their finances. But it has also led to debacles such as WeWork.The simple idea behind Sarbanes-Oxley is that public companies require an extra layer of accounting checks that private ones do not in order to protect average investors, who are exposed to all the downside caused by managements who reaped an asymmetric payoff by going public. Because Sarbanes-Oxley made the initial public offering process difficult and expensive, companies responded by staying private longer.Some research suggests Sarbanes-Oxley has had no bearing on the number of companies going public or the valuation at which they go public, but I have a tough time taking that seriously. Despite the stock market reaching record highs, last year only saw 190 IPOs in the U.S. raising $40.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In 2000, there were 306 that raised $53.5 billion. Also, the number of publicly traded companies has shrunk from more than 8,000 in 1996 to less than 4,000 currently.I was an equities trader at the time Sarbanes-Oxley became law, and the unintended consequences were not so hard to predict. It was all everyone on the trading floor talked about – and it’s what we are seeing now. The result of companies waiting longer to go public is that when they do, valuations are much higher. The sole purpose of an IPO has become a liquidity event for the founders and early investors, with venture capital firms have ended up capturing most of the growth.What’s left is a highly unappealing investment for the public. In this way, Sarbanes-Oxley actually exacerbated wealth inequality. You could have bought Amazon.com Inc. at a $2 billion valuation in 1997 and rode it all the way up to $1 trillion. Uber Technologies Inc. went public in May as a fully-valued stock -- and then some. Its shares are down about 35% from the IPO.As successful as it is, Amazon was subjected to the quarterly dissection of its results very early on in its public life. People -myself included - moaned quite a bit about its amazing ability to generate losses, but ultimately the stock market decided to take a long view. There is no discipline imposed when a private company has money shoveled into it at successively higher valuations.Being public isn’t fun, with the regimen of quarterly earnings, having to deal with research analysts, the obligatory deference to Wall Street and the activists breathing down your neck. It’s much more fun to be private and ultimately sell shares at the highs to anyone who is gullible enough to buy them.As for WeWork, no company surpasses it in terms of excess, bizarre behavior, related-party transactions and conflicts of interest – the type of creature generally associated with a market top. But if it went public at, say, a $2 billion valuation instead of something in excess of $50 billion, it is likely that none of that craziness would have happened because WeWork would have been subject to the quarterly earnings scrutiny very early on.So yes, in a way, Sarbanes-Oxley is how we got WeWork as well as many other intractable business models. It also is a big reason for rising wealth inequality. It should be repealed, or at least, the expensive parts of it, because the current system doesn’t protect investors, it fleeces them. I could not have created a more unfair system if I tried.To contact the author of this story: Jared Dillian at j.dillian@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Robert Burgess at bburgess@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jared Dillian is the editor and publisher of The Daily Dirtnap, investment strategist at Mauldin Economics, and the author of "Street Freak" and "All the Evil of This World." He may have a stake in the areas he writes about.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
What's Next For 2019's IPO Class?
The IPOs of 2019 like Uber (UBER), Lyft (LYFT), and Levi Strauss (LEVI) may not be out of the woods yet.
- Market Realist
Zoom Video and CRWD Lead Tech IPO Gains in 2019
Zoom Video is trading significantly higher than 2019's other IPO debutants. Zoom stock had an offer price of $36 and is trading at $73.52—104% higher.
- Zacks
Uber Technologies (UBER) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Uber Technologies (UBER) closed at $28.87 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.69% move from the prior day.
- ACCESSWIRE
The Klein Law Firm Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of COF, IFF and UBER
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2019 / The Klein Law Firm announces that class action complaints have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following companies. There is no cost to participate ...
