Uber hasn’t had a great year. Between repeated legal losses, shakeup after shakeup among the company leadership, issues with sexual harassment and sexual assault, and many more scandals, it’s no surprise that the sharks smell blood in the water and are circling the transportation company.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a Japanese investor group is now buying up a large stake of Uber — and getting it at a sharp discount, too. SoftBank Group Corp. successfully purchased their stake after Uber put about 20% of its shares up for sale, but SoftBank isn’t scooping up all the available shares:
SoftBank will likely limit the stake it acquires to 15% in the tender offer, which values Uber at $48 billion, the people said. That is a roughly 30% discount to its most recent valuation of nearly $70 billion. Other members of SoftBank’s bidding group are likely to buy part of the remaining shares on offer, the people said.
The deal will reportedly also install six new directors to Uber (two of them from SoftBank), and all of the company’s investors will see increased voting rights. As part of the strategy, apparently, the lowered purchase price will see SoftBank in turn reinvest about a billion dollars in order to prop up the existing stock price. Also, SoftBank holds investments in multiple Uber competitors, so it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
(Via Wall Street Journal)