This article seems to dismiss how deep and liquid capital markets are today and easy it is to raise capital with even a sniff of cash flow..
> This article seems to dismiss how deep and liquid capital markets are today and easy it is to raise capital with even a sniff of cash flow..
I find it hard to share your optimisim in how easy it will be for them to raise more money. Regardless, my thought experiment was _if_ they go bankrupt, what happens then...
I suppose during bankruptcy someone can buy their matchmaking tech and IP and relaunch without all that debt and overhead. Seems like a good target for someone to just run and pump cash out of as there should be a way to make money out of “market rate” * 15% fee for matchmaking.
I mean taxis were profitable and this is just a better taxi algorithm since the automate the multiple drivers sharing a cab process.
I don't see that happening but do you have examples where that strategy has worked (in tech)?
I think there were a few dot coms that got bought out of bankruptcy by larger firms, maybe pets.com and toys.com (although toysrus is gone now).
Polaroid [1] too although I think that’s more branding than technology.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_Communications [1]
The difference? You have the choice between paying through the app or not (like a prepaid regular taxi). Uber designed its system to look as if drivers were employees, so they will die with the concept of HR fraud they created, but prepaid transport apps will remain.
Which is why Microsoft will buy Uber, to keep up the illusion that Uber is a valuable property.
Of course this is all the sort of speculation that's impossible to predict, but it's just something I've been thinking for a while. Uber failing would be a pretty big failure.