NPR: What To Expect When Uber Hits The Stock Market
Uber hits the stock market Friday. Its value may reach 90 billion dollars, But its ultimate market value could face headwinds with the populist movement rising in America.
SHAHANI: To buy Uber stock and hold onto it is to assume that history is a guide, that the route Uber took to get as big as it is will not be blocked anytime soon. Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute, describes that route. He says Uber just showed up in cities, ignored the rules governing taxi cabs, even hid from government employees.
MATT STOLLER: They go into cities. They get a bunch of customers, and then they get those customers to lobby their city council to change the law.
SHAHANI: In the next phase, Stoller says, Uber will try to steamroll over anti-trust laws. Only today is different from, say, 2012 when Facebook went public. During the Clinton and Obama years, the top Democrats did not take on corporate power, and that was a departure from the party's norm, Stoller says. Now some Silicon Valley insiders and top Democrats are putting monopolies back on the chopping block.
STOLLER: There is substantial dissatisfaction with lawlessness in white-collar America, and I think that is going to change.