- Mark Cuban says he turned down the possibility to spend money on Uber at a $10 million valuation.
- Uber’s market worth has surged by over 9,000-fold since then to north of $90 billion.
- Cuban might have paid $250,000 for an Uber stake price $2.3 billion at this time, all else being equal.
Mark Cuban turned down the possibility to spend money on Uber at a valuation of not more than $10 million — simply over 0.01% of the ride-hailing firm’s $91 billion market capitalization at this time.
The “Shark Tank” star bemoaned the missed alternative throughout a current episode of “Hart to Coronary heart,” actor Kevin Hart’s discuss present. Cuban recalled that Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick invited him to speculate $250,000 at a $10 million valuation, nearly a decade earlier than the corporate went public in 2019.
Cuban pushed again, appropriately predicting that Uber would face regulatory hurdles and dear battles with taxi commissions because it labored to disrupt the transportation trade. He provided to speculate at a $5 million valuation, however Kalanick did not reply.
“He acquired any person else,” Cuban stated. “Whoops.”
Cuban’s $250,000 would have secured him a 2.5% stake in Uber at a $10 million valuation. Ignoring any dilution, his shares would have been price $2.3 billion as of Friday’s shut — a roughly 9,200-fold acquire on his funding.
The expertise billionaire and Dallas Mavericks proprietor might need been capable of spend money on Uber on much more enticing phrases. In 2019, he tweeted out an electronic mail trade with Kalanick from 2010, during which Cuban wrote that he “would not contact a 2mm valuation, not to mention 5mm.”
If Cuban did have an opportunity to speculate $250,000 at a $5 million valuation, and he took it, his 5% stake could be price $4.6 billion at this time, all else being equal. Unsurprisingly, Cuban labeled his determination to cross on Uber his “largest miss ever.”
Cuban appears to have realized his lesson. On the SXSW convention in 2017, he inspired anybody with an thought to disrupt the world to get in contact with him. “I will not make the identical mistake twice,” he stated.
Uber inventory has soared 81% this 12 months, however at $45 it nonetheless trades round its IPO worth, greater than 4 years after becoming a member of the general public market.
Cuban is much from the one investor to let a golden alternative slide him by. Elon Musk has repeatedly famous that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger declined to spend money on Tesla at a $200 million valuation in 2008, that means they probably missed out on making greater than 3,000 instances their cash.
