Uber has already made billions from its exits in China, Russia and Southeast Asia
By Jon Russell
Uber’s exits from China, Russia and Southeast Asia were billed as failures from the company, but the ride-sharing giant has already made billions on paper from those moves, according to its IPO filing.
Uber released its much-anticipated S1 on Thursday U.S. time and reporters and analysts are frantically digging into a treasure trove of previously-unreleased details. A number of sections on Uber’s global divestitures begin to paint a clear picture of the strategy that Uber employed when leaving China, Russia and Southeast Asia in recent years.
In each case, Uber decided to leave the market but, upon doing so, take a stake in its rival business in exchange for the assets it had remaining. That not only keeps them involved, but it removes the often substantial cost of competing with a single-market player and gives Uber options to re-enter the market or profit from its partner’s success there.
Already that strategy is bearing fruit. Today, those holdings are collectively worth a cool $12.5 billion on paper, with a least $3 billion in gains so far.
China: $7.95 billion
China was Uber’s first tactical exit and it saw the company sell to local giant Didi Chuxing in August 2016.
The Uber …read more
Source: Tech Crunch
