Since Uber came into the scene, it has changed the game. The American startup technology company started in March 2009, in San Francisco, California. It has since then grown to a global brand in 6 continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America) and it is now available in over 60 countries. It has made Uber very accessible to many customers worldwide. The fact that it offers convenient rides 24/7 through the tap of a button has made it very popular with millions of users globally. It explains why the silicon valley startup grew so quickly and was referred to as the highest valued private startup in the world. Today’s topic- Does Google Own Uber?
How Does Google Get Into The Picture?
You would have probably heard people here and there say that Google owns Uber but is there some truth in this?
Google does not own Uber entirely rather it has invested over 255 million dollars through its venture capital firm known as Alphabet’s early-stage investments Group formerly known as Google ventures. It owns slightly over 5% of Uber and this now amounts to more than 5 billion dollars.
Google may not own the entire Uber company but it is a shareholder with a small percentage. Additionally, Google employees are part of the Uber board of directors.
This relationship runs deeper by Google supporting Uber through their mapping technology. During their IPO filling, Uber revealed that they had spent over $55 million for the mapping technology from Google. Further, they have asked Google to market and advertise for them. This amounted to over 630 million dollars.
Despite the two companies having a friendly relationship, Google and Uber similarly have a combative relationship, which is very competitive. Recently, Google started its own company known as Waymo. It’s a self-driving cab company. Waymo is competing with Uber and it aims to supersede Uber in the future.
In 2007 some drama ensued with the two rivals. Alphabet went to court suing Uber over stolen trade secrets. Uber claims that the trade secrets were stolen when Uber acquired a self-driving technology from former Google executive Antony Levandowski.
The case proceeded in court and the two companies settled in February 2018. Uber agreed to pay Waymo a 0.34% equity stake, which is approximately 245 million dollars.
Despite the settlement, Uber still maintains that it did not steal any of Waymo’s secrets on its self-driving cars.
Who Then Owns Uber?
Uber is technically not owned by anybody. It is owned by a large number of shareholders. This is known as a Public held company.
These shareholders range from Investment banks, stockbrokers, and private investors. For instance one of the major shareholders is a Japanese investment bank known as Softbank per last year invested over $20 billion in Uber. The second financial institution with a major investment is known as the Saudi Arabia public investment fund. It has an investment of approximately $3.5 billion which amounts to over $70 million Uber shares, which is around 5 to 6 percent.
And lastly, let’s not forget two more shareholders are Uber founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick who own millions of shares. Kalanick has also sold over $50 million shares, which is approximately 55% of Uber shares and it approximately amounts to $1.48 billion. Garrett camp has also sold over 750 000 shares which are approximately $20 million.
As some of the shareholders were selling others were buying. Dara Khosroswhahi, the CEO bought about 250 000 shares which were approximately $6.65 million, and Ronald sugar who is the chairman of the board of directors bought 35 000 shares approximately $1million.
Challenges that Uber Faced During Its Rise
In 2017 Uber was outed for having a toxic company culture. Employees raised complaints about the work environment being highly toxic, offensive, and sexist. It led to a thorough investigation of the company. Eventually, it led to the forceful resignation of the then CEO Travis Kalanick and more than 20 more employees.
On May 9, 2019, Uber went public, there was huge anticipation of Uber’s IPO, It was the most anticipated of the year. The wall street Investors anticipated value to be at 120 billion dollars but unfortunately, it was not the case. It fell flat with $69 billion, which was slightly above half the anticipation.
It made a record for being with the biggest first dollar loss in U.S. history.
Despite the shortcomings, Uber has worked hard on becoming more profitable and has been able to complete the acquisition of high-profile companies such as Drizly, JUMP Bikes, Lime, and Postmates. In 2020, It additionally sold its self-driving car that had been highly anticipated.
3 More Things you Should Know About Uber
- Uber is listed on the stock exchange. Uber is listed on the New York stoke exchange. It shows how much Uber has grown as a company.
- Uber makes a huge amount of profits. It is no longer just a startup from Silicon Valley but makes billions of dollars.
- Uber had diversified. We can start with Uber eats services, a self-driving cars research firm known as Otto, a bicycle and electrical company, and many more.
