Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Maybe This Will Give You a Lyft

Sorry for the slow response.... 

"Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. plans to raise as much as $1 billion in new funds, according to a Delaware state filing, in a round of financing analysts said could sharply boost the valuation of Uber Technologies Inc.’s largest US rival. Lyft didn’t indicate in the Friday evening filing how much had been raised or who was investing in the round and did not list a valuation. Sven Weber, a financial filings expert, pegged the pre-money valuation at about $4.5 billion while Justin Byers at VC Experts estimates it closer to $3.9 billion. Lyft was valued at $2.5 billion when it announced a previous funding round in March. The latest fund-raising round contained some downside protection for new investors, including the provision of extra shares should Lyft go public at a lower valuation. “This is a very modest ratchet function,” said Weber, president of the SharesPost 100 Fund. “It’s not outrageous.”

There is money out there; good luck flagging it down.

NDUs: 

Who is the Lyftiest of them all?

Michigan.

Seattle may seek to help Uber drivers unionize

"A victory for the drivers seeking the pay and benefits of employees rather than independent contractors threatens to upend the ride share company’s business model and cut into its more than $60 billion valuation."

What did they expect, a free ride?

Fiat Chrysler to pay $70m for withholding safety data

Did the airbag deploy?

"Another public lender — one partly financed by the US government — put a hold on credit that had been earmarked for a new Volkswagen plant in Poland.

WTF?

And prosecutors in Stuttgart, Germany, said Wednesday that they had begun investigating whether employees at Bosch, a major Volkswagen supplier, had played a role in programming vehicles to cheat on emissions tests.

The new developments further ensnarled Volkswagen in a legal thicket that includes dozens of lawsuits by disgruntled owners, along with criminal investigations in Germany, the United States, and other countries.

Volkswagen, which had already been setting aside money and cutting costs to deal with the mounting scandal, said Wednesday that it would cease production of a poor-selling luxury vehicle except for an all-electric version.

In a separate development on Wednesday....

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I'm feeling let down after their television commercials this holiday $ea$on that were so heartwarming.