The Unicorn Worriers Weren’t Wrong

Uh, technically, I guess:

I mean, $82.4 billion is more than $76 billion, but it is not $8.1 billion more than $76 billion. Uber Technologies Inc.’s pre-money valuation in its initial public offering is about $74.1 billion, lower than its last private round: If you don’t count the fresh money they are putting in, Uber’s new public investors give the company a lower value than its most recent private investors did. As we discussed yesterday, Uber has been selling stock in private transactions for about three years at about $48.77 per share. Last night it sold stock to public investors at $45. “The Uber IPO is America’s single greatest corporate wealth creation event since Facebook Inc.,” writes Eric Newcomer, but viewed in a certain light it actually destroyed corporate wealth. The wealth was created by Uber doing stuff, building a business, and raising funds privately; the IPO was supposed to certify that wealth and make it liquid, but some wealth leaked out along the way.