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I think you're over thinking this. Suggesting that Lyft is worth a low price so that people think that means Lyft is worth more doesn't seem plausible. Why not just suggest that Lyft is worth $8 billion?

On the other hand, I could see Uber trying to devalue Lyft so that they could buy them for cheaper. Or so that Lyft has a hard time raising money at a higher valuation.

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I'm saying that if Uber was trying to devalue Lyft, it's far too obvious a ploy. It won't work. They may as well have said Lyft is worthless-- it'd still be for obvious reasons, but at least that wouldn't have established such a high floor.

Any buyer reading this will assume that this means Uber thinks Lyft is actually worth upwards of $6-8B. As such, it is silly of Uber to have signaled this, unless they have a third-order effect they are hoping for (eg getting someone to overpay for Lyft). But I agree with you that that is unlikely to work... therefore, Uber is being silly here.

Would regulators allow Uber to buy Lyft?

Since when does uber care about regulations?

From the article regarding Uber purchasing Lyft:

"Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick has said privately that he would not support such a deal because he believes it would face intense regulatory scrutiny"

I don't see why not. There are other [minor] competitors in the world.

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