{"id":39089,"date":"2017-10-19T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=39089"},"modified":"2017-10-19T19:31:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T18:31:39","slug":"taxi-ranks-cannot-be-worth-10-billion-unless-some-conditions-are-attached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/10\/19\/taxi-ranks-cannot-be-worth-10-billion-unless-some-conditions-are-attached\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxi ranks cannot be worth $10 billion unless some conditions are attached"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have an innate sense for crass commercial valuations, based largely on seeing too many. So my antennae where pulsing <a href=\"http:\/\/app.ft.com\/content\/eceb2071-c636-3712-9310-b09d94d5c055?emailId=59e8c53960feaa0004331275&amp;segmentId=3d08be62-315f-7330-5bbd-af33dc531acb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">when I read this in the FT<\/a> this afternoon:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Google parent company] Alphabet is leading a new $1bn fundraising round in Lyft that values the Uber rival at $10bn, raising the stakes in the fierce competition between the San Francisco based transportation companies.<\/p>\n<p>The investment values Lyft at a $10bn pre-money valuation, which is 45 per cent higher than its previous fundraising, which took place just six months ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>First, this is not a transportation company. Lyft, like Uber, does not run cabs. It runs a taxi rank.<\/p>\n<p>Second, no taxi rank has ever been worth $10 billion.<\/p>\n<p>And if someone thinks it is then they have four things at the forefront of their minds.<\/p>\n<p>The first is driving the competition out of the market.<\/p>\n<p>The second is then screwing the consumer.<\/p>\n<p>The third is screwing their staff.<\/p>\n<p>And the fourth is then presenting the regulator with a fait accompli as they're hoping all other games will have been driven out of town and that way they'll earn hyper rents from their rank activities.<\/p>\n<p>That's how you can make a fortune from a cab booking service.<\/p>\n<p>And it stinks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have an innate sense for crass commercial valuations, based largely on seeing too many. So my antennae where pulsing when I read this in<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2017\/10\/19\/taxi-ranks-cannot-be-worth-10-billion-unless-some-conditions-are-attached\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}