Sources: Uber to sell ~$10B worth of stock at $90B-$100B valuation in IPO, will make S-1 public Thursday, begin roadshow late April, and start trading early May
(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc has decided it will seek to sell around $10 billion worth of stock in its initial public offering …
Context & Ripple Effects
Uber's path to the public markets has been a decade-long repricing: a 2015 private round targeting a $50B-or-higher valuation made it one of the most valuable venture-backed companies ever, and by October 2018 banks were floating proposals of a $120B IPO valuation. Today's report locks the mechanics — roughly $10B of stock sold, an S-1 on Thursday, roadshow late April, trading early May — at a target range well under those bank proposals.
The size matters as much as the number: at ~$10B this would be among the largest US IPOs on record, forcing Uber's finances into full public view via the S-1 and giving early backers their first real liquidity window.
First-order effects
- Uber raises ~$10B at a $90B-$100B valuation, and the Thursday S-1 exposes its losses, unit economics, and governance structure to public scrutiny for the first time.
- Early investors and employees gain a liquidity event nearly four years in the making, while the roadshow starting late April puts Uber's management in front of institutional buyers who will test whether the $90B-$100B target holds.
Second-order effects
- The gap between the $120B valuation banks proposed last October and today's $90B-$100B target signals that underwriters are discounting their own pitch books to market reality — a pricing reset other late-stage unicorns preparing listings must now benchmark against.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — private rounds compounding valuations for years, then a public debut priced below the last banker proposal — the mega-IPO becomes the moment private-market marks get marked down, pressuring how growth-stage tech is valued before it lists.
The trend: Venture-backed giants are reaching public markets through record-size offerings whose valuations land below peak private-market expectations, turning the IPO itself into a repricing event rather than a victory lap.