Uber has set its IPO share price at $45 in its market debut on the NYSE this morning. Originally predicting a per-share price range of $44 to $50, Uber’s market valuation ultimately came in around $75.46 billion on a non-diluted basis, 37% lower than the $120 billion it initially sought. This was likely influenced by the rideshare market leader’s adjusted losses of $1.8 billion for 2018, alongside slowing revenue growth. Uber was also in the news this week for driver protests, who went on strike in response to Uber’s controversial note classifying drivers as contractors in its IPO filing.
In digital marketing news this week, Facebook launched its new Automated Ads platform to help small businesses use Facebook advertising to their advantage. New tools include an ad generator to test different versions, video editing tools, appointment booking and targeting recommendations based on the company’s page. Small businesses without advertising resources are the most likely to see an increase in promotional performance.
Featured in SaaS business listings this week we have a $1.074M Online Privacy and Hosting business, a well-built and highly scalable portfolio of SaaS businesses with over 1 million lifetime users. This business has seen continuous YoY growth with revenues reaching c.49.8% CAGR for the period 2016 to 2018, award-winning software with cross-platform compatibility and c.96% average customer support satisfaction rating, firm foothold in the rapidly-growing VPN niche and strong synergies allowing for a scalable cost structure and driving high net margins. If you are interested in this business, please follow the link to request a prospectus.
In events news, the FE team will be hosting our quarterly London networking drinks event next Wednesday! Join CEO Ismael Wrixen at The Anthologist next Wednesday, May 15 to meet other founders, investors, executives and experts in the online business space. RSVP here if you can make it so we can make sure to get accurate numbers! Elsewhere, Founder Thomas Smale will be at Seller’s Summit in Miami next week from May 15-17, where FE International will be sponsoring. Make sure to come say hello if you will be in attendance, or reply to this email to set up a meeting if you will be in the area!
Continue reading below for more on Uber’s IPO, Facebook’s new advertising tools and other SaaS news like Intello’s funding round.
Listings
Featured
SaaS – Online Privacy & Hosting – $22K MRR
- Well-built and highly scalable portfolio of SaaS businesses with over 1 million lifetime users
- Continuous YoY growth with revenues reaching c.49.8% CAGR for the period 2016 to 2018
- Award-winning software with cross-platform compatibility and c.96% average customer support satisfaction rating
- Firm foothold in the rapidly-growing VPN niche
- Strong synergies allowing for a scalable cost structure and driving high net margins
Yearly net profit: $227,000
Asking price: $1,074,000
Software – Digital Sales & Marketing – $52K gross/mo
- Well-received software with over 5,200 installs on Shopify and clear value proposition in a rapidly-growing niche
- Steady growth with revenues reaching an impressive c.6.3% CMGR over the L12M
- Impressive customer support satisfaction rating of over 95%
- Proven track record of paid customer acquisition via advertising
- Low-touch operational model with a professional team staying on post-sale
Yearly net profit: $200,000
Asking price: $710,000
Amazon FBA – 4 Y/O Fashion & Accessories – $43K gross/mo
- Strong brand firmly positioned in the fashion & accessories niche
- Wide market acceptance with hundreds of five-star product reviews
- Diversified SKU base with no single product driving more than c.3% of earnings in the LTM
- High-quality product offering driving more than c.4,000 monthly orders over the LTM
- Established supplier relationships allowing the business to maintain stable unit economics
Yearly net profit: $121,000
Asking price: $319,000
In the News…
Uber Prices Shares at $45 in IPO
Uber has priced its IPO at $45 on Thursday evening ahead of its market debut on the Nasdaq this morning.
When plans for the IPO first became public, the ride-sharing giant had initially shared aspirations to reach a $120 billion market capitalization. Ultimately, the company debuted at about a $74.56 billion valuation on a non-diluted basis, which made it one of the most valuable companies ever to IPO. Uber’s revenue grew 43% from 2017 to 2018 to $11.3 billion, while adjusted losses for the year ended up at $1.8 billion, down from $2.6 billion in 2017. To date, Uber has not yet posted a profit, instead relying on the more than $24 billion total funding it has raised in its lifetime. This week, Uber faced protests from drivers, who expressed discontent with comments made by Uber in its IPO filing which stated that making sure the drivers are classified as contractors is key to their business model; this exempts Uber from having to pay them minimum wage and certain benefits.
UBER was down by nearly $3 on Friday at 12:00, but was slowly turning around by 13:30 EST.
SaaS Management Tool Intello Raises $2.5 million
New York City-based SaaS management platform Intello has announced a $2.5 million extended seed round of funding.
This investment round brings the lifetime fundraising for the company to $4 million, as reported by the company itself. One of the lead investors in the round, Resolute Ventures, had partner Mike Hirshland state of Intello, “They are solving the pain of SaaS sprawl that every organization is facing by empowering modern IT, finance and security teams with better visibility.” Barak Kaufman, co-founder and CEO, has stated the startup is focused on “end-to-end SaaS management, which includes spend optimization and mapping out unused products and licenses. We are still still doing that, but as we are selling primarily to IT, and sometimes InfoSec directors, the product has evolved passed that to working on compliance.”
Intello integrates with dozens of other tools out of the box, and plans to have a total of 100 integrations by the end of 2019.
Facebook Launches New Advertising Tools
Facebook has launched a suite of new advertising tools to help SMBs improve the performance of their advertising efforts.
The new tools include an Automated Ads platform, video editing features and appointment booking functionality. Facebook stated, “With over 90 million small businesses on Facebook, we’re proud to play a role in helping business of all sizes grow and create jobs.” With fewer resources to devote to advertising efforts, small businesses historically need more support to achieve positive results. Automated Ads will automatically generate a maximum of six different versions of an ad suited to run across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network. It will also offer targeting suggestions and budget parameters based on the user’s goal for the ad. New video editing tools will include automatic cropping, video trimming and image/text overlays. Appointment booking capabilities are being launched through Messenger.
Alongside these helpful updates, Facebook launched online courses and will host more than 200 SMB training events in 2019.
For more updates throughout the week on the financial world of online business M&A, follow our team on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.