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Comment by alopecoid | Hacker News Reader

Dumb question:

Since Google Ventures invested in Uber, does that mean that owning Google stock indirectly translates to a [small] pre-IPO investment in Uber?

http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Uber-does-Google-own

"Google Ventures invested $258M at $3.7B post-money valuation in 2013, so they bought 6.8% of the company. Depending on whether or not they have taken pro-rata investment rights in Uber's subsequent financings they either own the same percentage or a slightly diluted stake. Let's say somewhere between 6.0% and 6.8% as of Q1 2015."

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It's hard to say.

Google Ventures actually invests through various funds organized as limited partnerships. These are separate entities and Google, Inc. would only receive a return from this investment to the extent that it was a partner in the fund that invested in Uber or if it had a side agreement with that fund to give it a share of the return.

You can tell from various GV SEC filings that Google, Inc. may have the right to vote shares held by the GV funds, but the filings don't disclose Google's share of the proceeds of a sale of the shares.

Yes, though Google's own performance is a big 'noise' factor which would make Google stock a poor proxy for Uber's performance. Yahoo and Alibaba were in a similar but more exacerbated situation last year.

Yes.

Source: I used to work for Google Ventures.

That would be a very complex equation, some variables would be:

- Google Ventures operates independently of Google.

- How much of the ~1.5 billion fund under management has Google money invested in it.

- In the round they lead for Uber, what percentage of it was GV, and out of that, what percentage was directly funded by stakeholders that identify as part of Google. And what percentage of those stakeholders is owned directly by Google.

These all vectors multiply. It ultimately has to be seen how much Alphabet gets for every dollar that Uber makes in profit. But I'm sure there is a percentage.

Yes, but you should not count on performance of Google stock as a proxy of Uber.

It's not so uncommon to see something like that.

Although somewhat different, Berkshire Hathaway has its own stock and holdings in other companies such as Kraft or Coca-Cola.

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