The Wall Street Journal reports that Uber received proposals from big bank big boys Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which value the company at a whopping $120B — nearly double the $76B price tag it received from a funding round back in August.
Ready for a hot, stanky take?
We smell an IPO.
Uber has been trying to get its ducks in order (or rather, its sh*t together) for an IPO for some time, and documents like this usually indicate the ride-hailing giant is interviewing underwriters for exactly that.
Speaking of underwriting IPOs… this happened on the same day Lyft announced it has selected underwriters for an IPO expected in the first half of 2019 — and you know Uber ain’t gonna let Lyft cross the finish line first.
More importantly, should we believe Uber’s hype?
Let’s ask Bloomberg, which told us all where to stick that hype with the headline, “$120B Doesn’t Make Uber a Real Company.”
Writer Shira Ovide said it best: “No one can confidently predict how most private tech companies will fare when they become grown-up public companies. That goes quadruple for Uber Technologies Inc.”
And it’s fair — Uber has accomplished a lot, but the one thing it has yet to achieve is turn a profit.