...aaaand, Uber (meaning, the owners of Uber pre-IPO) has less ownership in the business afterwards.
Sure, you can argue that the $8.1B is something "real" that the owners of Uber have more of, afterwards.
But you also have to acknowledge that the business of running Uber is also something "real" that the owners of Uber have less of, afterwards, having traded it in a heavily-scrutinized auction.
If you have an asset and someone pays for that asset with a more liquid asset, then you now have that more liquid asset
In this case Uber Inc exchanged illiquid stock for liquid dollars.
Why the semantical debate? Did the use of the word “make” really bother you? What about when there is dilution like in most funding rounds? Shares of equivalent value are literally made. In this IPO Im not sure if that happened with the sale to the underwriters or not.
This kind of asset exchange is what we are all trying to do, exchange one asset for a more liquid one, dollars. They succeeded in doing that to the tune of 8.1 billion usd. The same us dollars that give access to everything in the global financial system via wire transfer.
Sure, you can argue that the $8.1B is something "real" that the owners of Uber have more of, afterwards.
But you also have to acknowledge that the business of running Uber is also something "real" that the owners of Uber have less of, afterwards, having traded it in a heavily-scrutinized auction.