Sources: SoftBank discussed deal with Benchmark to buy Uber shares from existing shareholders at $40B-$45B valuation, and invest an additional $1B at $70B
The Information : Tweets: @cityofthetown , @mikeisaac , and @jessicalessin Tweets: Tom Dotan / @cityofthetown : Softbank maybe investing in Uber is the latest thing stressing out the board. Also this is a horrible idea. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... pic.twitter.com/jI1O0Dyz58 @mikeisaac : good additional deets on the SoftBank thing from the information. q: why do a secondary before you even pick a CEO? http://www.theinformation.com/ ... Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin : SoftBank had been proposing an Uber secondary at $45B. Not likely to happen. Here's why. http://www.theinformation.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
The SoftBank-Uber courtship has been running through Benchmark all summer: the firm initiated the effort to sell stock before the CEO's ouster, and this report shows what it was negotiating — a two-track structure where existing shareholders cash out at $40B-$45B while SoftBank injects $1B of fresh capital at $70B. The gap between those two prices is the story: SoftBank is pricing Uber's paper well below its last round even as it funds the company forward.
Jessica Lessin's follow-up note that a $45B secondary was 'not likely to happen' frames the tension — a discount this steep forces every holder to decide whether Uber's next mark will be lower still. The eventual shape matters because the board is simultaneously trying to hire a CEO, and a large new shareholder changes who that CEO answers to.
First-order effects
- Uber shareholders get a live exit quote for the first time since the last round — but at $40B-$45B, roughly half the $70B primary price, so any taker crystallizes a deep markdown on their position.
Second-order effects
- A completed deal would hand SoftBank a major stake bought at distressed pricing, shifting board leverage toward the incoming investor just as Uber searches for a CEO; rival holders face pressure to sell into the same window before the discount gets worse.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and SoftBank's later $48B tender-offer approach suggests it did — late-stage private companies gain a standing mechanism for shareholder liquidity at negotiated haircuts, decoupling internal marks from what strategic buyers will actually pay.
The trend: Late-stage startup valuations are being repriced by structured secondaries, where a single strategic buyer's discount bid becomes the de facto market price for everyone else's shares.