Question

Peloton is preparing for an IPO. (Initial Public Offering is when a company begins selling stock to the public.) The maker of video-streaming exercise is expected to select its slate of underwriters soon and on track to go public sometimes this year. Peloton is expected to seek a valuation in excess of the roughly $4 billion estimate last year after a fund-raising round led by venture-capital firm TCV. 2019 looks to be a busy year for high-profile IPOs. Uber, Lyft and Slack are also preparing for public offerings. Peloton, founded in 2012, makes stationary bikes that the company sells for prices ranging from $2,245 to nearly $2,700 when packaged with various accessories. Many of Peloton's customers use the bikes at home, paying about $39 a month to stream live classes that the company produces using its own instructors.

Which one of these companies do you think would be a good investment? Why?

Answer 1

Peloton, Uber, Lyft and Slack. Well a tough question to ask which company would be good investment. My personal bias will be in Uber.

Uber is moving quickly toward its initial public offering, which Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says will be sometime this year. As the company gets closer to that date, more information about Uber's financials will be released.

Uber's valuation is about $90 billion right now. Previous estimates valued the company at around $120 billion, but The Information now puts the valuation closer to $90 billion, and Crunchbase estimates it may be closer to $70 billion. For comparison, Uber rival Lyft, also expected to go public this year, is currently valued at about $15 billion.

Net revenue is expected to reach $14.2 billion in 2019

Uber's offering could bring in as much as $25 billion, which would place it up there with 2014's float of Chinese retail giant Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) .

Slack - Good opprtunity

As of May 2018, Slack has grown its daily active users by 33% to 8 million since September 2017. In addition to that, the company has grown its paid users to 3 million, up 50% from September 2017.In May 2018, Slack also announced that it has 70,000 paid teams. User growth is essential to companies like Slack. The company’s ability to grow its paid subscribers is going to be top priority, and for potential investors, that’ll be a huge factor in if they invest or not.

The company will be entering a market that has some strong competition. This March, Microsoft announced that its Teams product is being used by 200,000 organizations after a little over a year of being on the market. Microsoft is known for its product bundles. Microsoft bundles Teams with its Office 365 cloud productivity suite for businesses, which could seem more attractive to some business owners. Instead of paying for one product, they’ll get other products that’ll be useful to their business.

Slack is also competing with Alphabet’s Google Hangouts, Cisco Systems Webex Teams, and Workplace by Facebook.

Between the two, Uber's stock is likely to perform better, as its larger market cap -- perhaps $120 billion at offer, versus $15 billion for Lyft -- aligns better with what appear to be much broader ambition.

And new initiatives keep cropping up, such as Uber's announcement last month of Powerloop, a business that will lease tractor trailers and rent them out to businesses.

The reward in tech these days is for spending, then bigger is always better, and Uber has already shown it can paint a picture of opportunity spiraling outward from its main business with the UberEats delivery business that is now on track to generate $6 billion in food sales.

A robust growth of Slack’s paid users will ensure to potential investors that the company is focused on that aspect and that it’s fully capable of still existing as company in the years to come.

Thanks