硅谷最值钱的非上市公司Uber，刚筹集12亿美元, 估值400亿美元

硅谷也泡沫！硅谷最值钱的非上市公司Uber，刚筹集到新一轮12亿美元融资，估值400亿美元！总筹资额达27亿美元！今年6月Uber融到12亿美元时，媒体和众多VC都警告170亿美元的估值已经泡沫。如果天使在种子轮投1万美元，如今稀释后值>2千万美元=2千倍回报！
打车APP开发商Uber投资者还承诺将对未来战略性投资提供额外融资空间=还可以烧更多的钱！Uber尤其重视未来在亚太拓展市场！
那么高的估值合理吗？短短几年间，Uber估值的上升速度也令人瞠目结舌，其2014年营收可能会达到15~20亿美元，如果达标估值=收入的20~27倍，比很多国内互联网公司更合理！




打车服务Uber筹资12亿美元：估值达400亿美元
http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2014-12-05/02339853328.shtml        2014年12月05日

　　美国打车服务Uber周四宣布，该公司再度筹集到12亿美元风险资本，这意味着其总筹资额已达27亿美元。在这个融资回合中，Uber的估值约为400亿美元。

　　Uber之所以能吸引到如此强大的投资者兴趣，是因为该公司正在迅速增长，其年度营收正在朝20亿美元的方向发展。而从“种子回合”到今天的短短几年间，Uber估值的上升速度也令人瞠目结舌。科技投资者赛米尔·沙赫(Semil Shah)在Twitter上写道：“不计入摊薄影响，在Uber筹资120万美元的‘种子回合’(当时Uber估值为500万美元)中投入的1万美元资金在今天的价值已达8000万美元。”

与此同时，Uber也一直都是很多负面报道的主角，其中有些报道关注的是该公司曾向司机作出的有关未来收入的承诺，这是其鼓励司机申请次级汽车贷款的方式。其他一些报道则质疑Uber与退伍军人的合作及其试图给竞争对手造成破坏的作法。另外，Uber高管埃米尔·麦考斯(Emil Michaels)曾建议该公司应对撰写Uber负面报道的新闻记者做“对手研究”，这一点也颇令人诟病。

　　Uber CEO特拉维斯·克拉尼克(Travis Kalanick)在宣布这个融资回合时表示：“这种增长同时也伴随着重大的‘成长的烦恼’。最近几周发生的事件表明，我们也需要投资于内部成长和改变，而承认错误和从中吸取教训则是第一步。我们正在公司内部展开通力协作，并正在从经历过类似挑战的公司那里寻求建议，目的是让我们能在必要之处作出改进。幸运的是，迅速采取行动是Uber所擅长的事情，我们将在未来几个月中作出改变。”

　　他还说道：“做正确的事会让我们成为一家更加睿智和更加谦虚的公司。我们将在数据隐私方面设定新的标准，为我们所服务的城市提供更多回报，并有效地定义和改良我们的公司文化。”


Uber is now more valuable than at least 72% of the Fortune 500
http://fortune.com/2014/12/04/ub ... illion-fortune-500/     DECEMBER 4, 2014
Sorry, Halliburton.

Uber, the popular on-demand transportation company, is now worth $40 billion thanks to a new funding round totaling $1.2 billion. Setting aside the fact that private, venture-backed company valuations are merely speculative until they go public, let’s compare Uber to some of the most valuable companies in the world: those on the Fortune 500.

Based on market capitalization data pulled today, Uber is now more valuable than 359 of the 469 publicly-traded companies on the Fortune 500, or about 77% of them. (That figure decreases to 72% if we add the 21 privately-held companies on the list. The catch is that we cannot determine the market capitalizations of those companies.)

Uber’s paper valuation is now higher than the following household-name companies:

Kraft Foods Group
Delta Air Lines
General Mills
CBS
Rite Aid
Macy’s
Viacom
Dollar General
Kellogg
KKR
Nordstrom
Halliburton Company
Archer-Daniels Midland Company
Omnicom Group
Charles Schwab Corporation
YUM! Brands
DISH Network
Aetna
Estee Lauder
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Kroger
Cardinal Health
Aflac Incorporated
Hilton Worldwide Holdings
L Brands
Hershey Company
ConAgra Foods
Whole Foods Market
Boston Scientific Corporation
Harley Davidson
Hormel Foods
Dollar Tree
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Campbell Soup Company
Best Buy
Clorox
Hertz Global Holdings
MGM Resorts
Mattel

The Fortune 500 is based on the annual revenue of U.S.-based companies. Uber’s revenue figures are private, but a leak of Uber’s financials shows the company was expected to do $1 billion in transactions in 2013, and is on track to do $1.5 billion to $2 billion this year.

Uber takes an approximate 20% cut from its transactions. That cut of $2 billion in revenue would be $400 million, which is not enough to land Uber on the Fortune 500. Even $2 billion in gross revenue isn’t enough: No. 500 on this year’s list, United Rentals, had $4.9 billion in revenue last year.

With its nosebleed valuation, investors are betting on the four-year-old company’s rapid growth. Uber has been doubling its revenue every six months, according to comments made by CEO Travis Kalanick in June of this year. At $40 billion, Uber more than doubled its valuation from just six months ago. The company is likely bound for an IPO, even as it grapples with a bad reputation. Investors don’t seem phased by the company’s negative publicity, because Uber is making them filthy rich. At Uber’s previous $18 billion valuation, early investors were set to make 2000 times their investment. Now, at $40 billion, the “Uber Rich” are only getting richer.


Uber's Value Just Doubled To $40 Billion In 6 Months (Sorry, Haters)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/20 ... lion_n_6270908.html   12/04/2014

While many of us have spent the past six months getting mad at Uber, Uber has spent the past six months making $22 billion magically appear.

The ride-sharing app maker, a lightning rod for controversy, announced on Thursday that it has raised $1.2 billion in new funding, bringing the company's value to roughly $40 billion. That's up from a paltry $18 billion six months ago.

Uber's investors are apparently unfazed by bad press. In recent months, the company has had to apologize for a top executive threatening to smear journalists critical of the business. It's also been rated F by the Better Business Bureau, protested by its own drivers, kicked out of Las Vegas and accused of dirty practices aimed at undercutting its rivals.

But Uber is willing to acknowledge it has issues.

"The events of the recent weeks have shown us that we also need to invest in internal growth and change," CEO Travis Kalanick said in the blog post announcing the new funding. He promised Uber would make changes to become "a smarter and more humble company."

One possible teensy consolation for Uber is this factoid suggested by Wall Street Journal editor Dennis Berman: Roughly four years ago, the company was worth $60 million. Today it's worth $40 billion. At this rate of growth, it is appreciating by $19,839 per minute, according to Berman's math.

If you had invested $10,000 in the company when it started, that $10,000 would be worth about $80 million now, estimates tech investor Semil Shah -- though the effects of the company repeatedly issuing new stock would have cut that gain down significantly by making stock worth less. Maybe your $10,000 share would only be worth $20 million today. Still, $20 million > $10,000, according to my math.

At the moment, Uber is worth more than most members of the Standard & Poor's 500 index. It is worth more than Delta Air Lines and the railroad company CSX. It's also worth more than all the personal real estate in Anaheim, California.

Whether the company is actually worth all that money, or whether it's just the poster child for a growing startup bubble, is a different question altogether. Uber is making a lot of money, though the exact amount won't be entirely clear until the company goes public -- at which point maybe you can help boost Uber's valuation, too.
An Uber spokeswoman declined to provide further comment.


Latest sign the tech bubble's really here: Uber valued at $17 billion
http://www.latimes.com/business/ ... 0140609-column.html    June 9, 2014

The ride-sharing app company Uber last week raised $1.2 billion in venture capital on terms that valued the company at $17 billion. As Will Oremus at Slate.com observed, that's almost as much as Hertz and Avis combined.

It's more plausible to see Uber's valuation not as an artifact of its genuine potential, but of growing inflation within the high-tech bubble.

Consider this: the number placed Uber in a rarefied club that previously included Groupon (worth $16.6 billion on its first day of public trading in 2011) and WhatsApp (worth $19 billion, based on the price paid for it by Facebook).

Of course, Groupon today is worth about $4.2 billion in market capitalization, a sizable plunge from that first day. And WhatsApp was paid largely in Facebook stock, which in time may or may not prove to be as valuable as quatloos.

Rational analysts have been pointing out the flaws, or at least the pitfalls, in treating Uber's $17-billion valuation as a number that reflects actual conditions in Silicon Valley, the business category, as opposed to "Silicon Valley" (the HBO satire).

One is tempted to think of the latter when hearing Uber insiders say things like: "Uber is building a digital mesh -- a grid that goes over the cities. Once you have that grid running, in everyone's pockets, there is a lot of potential for what you can build as a platform. Uber is in the empire-building phase." Watch the show, and tell me that couldn't come right out of the mouth of any of its leading characters, verbatim.

As is pointed out by Rags Srinivasan, a marketing expert who blogs at IterativePath, Uber is worth $17 billion today only if one makes very aggressive projections of the total market for taxi services and Uber's potential share of that market.

Among the assumptions is that the non-U.S. taxi market equals the U.S. market at $11 billion a year, that Uber's market share will be 50%, and it can raise its profit margin to 30% from 20%. Put all that together, he says, and you get to $17 billion -- almost.

On the other side of the coin are the head winds that Uber enthusiasts like to pretend don't exist. There's the legal pushback the firm is facing from municipalities and competitors, including taxi drivers. Maryland regulators, for instance, are proposing to designate Uber as a common carrier, which the company grouses would impose "antiquated regulations on our decidedly modern industry."

We're not a transportation company, Uber maintains, but "a technology company -- we do not own vehicles or manage/control drivers." Uber says the benefits it brings to "consumers, the market, and the economy are undisputed." Uber sounds more and more like BP and Exxon Mobil every day.

Another issue is that the barriers to entry for Uber competitors may not be very high. Nothing really keeps other entrepreneurs from distributing their own smartphone apps to summon drivers and undercutting Uber by offering passengers lower fares or drivers higher commissions.

One of the problems faced by companies with disruptive technologies is that they can get disrupted themselves -- think of the possible fate of Dropbox. The popular cloud-storage firm just saw its market potential undermined by none other than Apple, which will push its own cloud-storage functionalities in its OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 operating system upgrades this fall.

Uber claims to have an advantage because it was first into the ride-sharing biz. But while "first mover advantage" is a cherished mantra in Silicon Valley, it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It's certainly not a can't-miss formula for lasting success.

Ilan Mochari of Inc. Magazine probably has the savviest take on the Uber valuation: it's meaningless except possibly as a come-on to the next round of investors, who can use it to persuade themselves that they have a good chance of a profitable exit, if they're nimble enough. Others should keep in mind that almost every high-flying dot-com firm during the last bubble had a ludicrous valuation at one point or another, and only a bare minority of them are still around.