Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Softbank to invest in Uber?

What is the purpose of this muted investment? Uber hardly needs any cash - except to pay exorbitant 'compensation' to top executives and the existing investors. But basically the drivers ARE all there is to Uber, without them the firm is nothing except a bit of software (which can easily be put in place for a fraction of its valuation, i.e. net asset value of fixtures). All Softbank and its backers want to do is get hold of the stake and sell it to someone else at a later stage - probably the great unwashed public and it agents, the fund management community that will lap up any IPO however inflated the price may be.
People sniggered when MBO's and LBO's came into fashion during the 1980s. Now it is time for the EBO - the Employee Buyout. Unions and Investment Bankers have to team up and take control of business. Let capitalists (lenders, Share owners) control the underlying hard assets but wrest ultimate control from them. As the saying goes: all wheels come to a standstill if the workers don't participate.
BBC


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