Analyst "Finams" Leonid Delitsyn: Uber retreated, but did it beautifully - united with the leader of the market

Yandex.Taxi and Uber decided to combine their services in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan. Companies invest in the association 225 and 100 million dollars, respectively. The cost of a united company is estimated at $ 3.725 billion, and the general director of Yandex.Taxi Tigran Khudardyan will be headed. Uber will not change tariffs after unification, both applications will continue to work. The analyst of the Finam group Leonid Delitsyn told The Insider about the causes of this merger, as well as how it will affect the prices and quality of services.

Uber is now experiencing an administrative disaster. While at the helm was the founder of Travis Kalanik, the company was in a phase of rapid growth, and this growth was achieved at all costs. Colossal investments were attracted, huge funds were spent on marketing, the idea was very simple - to scold the entire market for the mass forces in the world. This is a story that is very clear to investors, the winner will take everything. However, in some markets, such as Chinese, it was not possible to achieve the goal, it was necessary to retreat, but basically Uber expanded all the time.

It is clear that when the company is estimated at 68 billion dollars, investors begin to think that it is time to pass this happiness to the next generation of investors who will observe how the company becomes self-sufficient and profitable, and this is a story for 10-15 years.

Obviously, the current investors looked at the near future with concern, and then a colossal scandal erupted with Uber employee Susan Fowler, who published a story about Uber leaders who incorrectly behave in relation to women engineers - roughly speaking, pester them. And, apparently, not only HR, but also the highest leadership of the company clings to this. So to speak, the idea “Guys, pull off as you want, just give growth indicators” - in action.

In America, after this, IPO is not easy, although Uber never voiced specific plans for this, but it is obvious that with such a capitalization it is time to enter the stock market. The way out, for sure, was supposed to occur at the end of this year or at the beginning of the next. The company at this stage should appear to the world white and fluffy. But the opposite happens - Uber appears wild and unbridled.

Why should it be white and fluffy? Because in the sense of finances, everything is not so cool for her. From the point of view of the layman, the taxi driver seems an unusual rich man, but in fact this is not so, and no matter how huge this market may seem, you can earn it on it only if you get it entirely, at least in one region. A company that wants to become public and facilitate the fate of current shareholders should look beautiful as an American dream.

However, the investigation begins, and at that moment, to top it off to everything, Trevis Kalanik dies the mother. All these misfortunes are falling on him, they put pressure on him, he departs from the Uber leadership, the company, presented by the board of directors, begins to manage the company, and the style of its leadership is completely different than that of the founder.

The commission is not going to achieve the goal at any cost, it will look for where to cut the bones, reduce marketing costs, and where, perhaps, to retreat in order to approach the time of placement of shares as a prudent, balanced, reliable company to which a massive investor can entrust his money.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Uber leadership examined the prospects in different countries, and where the resistance is obviously strongly (in Russia Uber is pushing already mature local players in the form of Yandex and Gett), it retreats. Moreover, Uber retreats without special losses, bloodshed, mutual exhaustion of competitors, and very beautifully, having received a share in a joint company with the leader of the market.

And this is not the first victory of Yandex, since for 20 years he successfully defends the Russian market, preserving his dominant role, at least in the desktop market and being an equal player in a mobile search. In addition, Google's capitalization is now exceeding $ 0.5 trillion, this is the second largest company of the world after Apple, and for such a market as Russian, it can have resources. This, for example, is the use of your own operating mobile system in order to slow down the development of its competitors, which the FAS was fighting against .

On the other hand, the victory of Yandex is not so important, since the taxi market itself, taxi drivers are not as profitable as the contextual and mobile advertising market. That is, it can be achieved on it, but whether the profit will be great is a big question. Rather, the market is important not by itself, but as a pass to some future world of unmanned vehicles, devices and so on. It is known that all the largest companies of a higher weight category are engaged in unmanned devices today: Google, Amazon and even Apple, with which Yandex cannot yet compete. Can Yandex find resources to enter this world is a big and difficult question.

The situation with travel prices will obviously change. If the transportation market turns into a shawarma market, when each tent on the corner provides services, then prices are minimal, nothing can be done about it. If several large players remain on the market, then the prices are not minimal, but there are more innovative services. The company that wants to provide such services should have money, that is, Yandex should have them in order to invest in these new technologies. If the companies are exhausted by competition to the limit, then we will definitely not see anything new.