Sources: Benchmark has told Uber investors it's unlikely to sell any shares to the Softbank consortium, complicating its proposed ~$10B investment in Uber
Benchmark representative was only Uber director to vote against deal terms to SoftBank — As Uber Technologies Inc. works to finalize …
Context & Ripple Effects
Benchmark's reversal is striking because it started this process: reporting in July said Benchmark initiated the effort to sell stock even before Uber's CEO was ousted, and August talks centered on SoftBank buying existing shareholders' shares at a $40B-$45B valuation alongside roughly $1B of new money at $70B.
By September, Benchmark's representative was the only Uber director to vote against the SoftBank deal terms, and the firm now signals it will keep its shares — pulling out of a secondary sale it proposed and complicating a consortium investment sized at around $10B.
First-order effects
- SoftBank's ~$10B structure depends on buying enough secondary shares from existing holders; a Benchmark holdout shrinks the available supply and forces renegotiation of price or size before any tender can close.
- Uber's board stays split on SoftBank's terms, with Benchmark's lone dissenting vote signaling continued governance friction inside the company months after the CEO's ouster.
Second-order effects
- Other early shareholders now price their own decisions off Benchmark: if the firm that started the sale talks won't sell, smaller holders gain reason to hold out for a higher bid or wait for an IPO instead.
- SoftBank must either raise its offer to dislodge reluctant holders or accept a smaller stake, weakening the leverage its earlier approach implied when it told Uber an investment would likely require a new CEO (July reporting).
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, control fights at late-stage startups get settled through discounted secondary tenders rather than IPOs, and holdout investors like Benchmark become the swing factor determining whether such deals clear at all.
The trend: SoftBank is building influence over late-stage startups by buying early investors' shares at discounts to last private marks, with seller holdouts like Benchmark setting the clearing price.