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E-Cig Maker Juul Valued at $15-16 Billion

posted by martyb on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the new-definition-of-vaporware dept.

takyon writes:

E-cig startup Juul plans to go global by raising $1.2 billion

"Juuling" might be a thing around the world in the future, because the e-cig-maker has big plans to go global. According to Bloomberg, Juul is raising $1.2 billion in a financing round, which would put the startup's value at a whopping $15 or $16 billion. If you need something to compare that to, Lyft recently reached a $15 billion valuation after raising $600 million. The publication says the company is hoping to use the money it raises from investors to make its USB vape pens available outside the US and Israel. Currently, if you want to buy its trendy pens and nicotine pods outside those two countries, you'd have to find resellers.

Does this story make you want to sell drugs flavored water to children?

Related: Tobacco Roundup (U.S. to Crack Down on Tobacco, Electronic Cigarettes)

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:29PM (2 children)

    by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:29PM (#701882) Homepage Journal

    While I speculate it is over valued, they pass my first rule of investing: the income stream is easily understood. They sell physical objects to consumers. The market is displacing a massive pre-existing technology, and the use of the product is highly addictive.

    I'll contrast that with WhatsApp, which was purchased by Facebook for $19bn: The service is competing with many other free products, so there is little opportunity to increase prices. A major differentiator is the privacy/encryption, which undermines secondary revenue streams like selling data to third parties. The Wikipedia article does not call it out, but I doubt the service posted profits before the acquisition.

    I'm not trying to turn this into a WhatsApp conversation. I'm just a bit thrilled that we finally have a startup acquisition with a business model that I fundamentally understand.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:47PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:47PM (#701965) Homepage
    You raise valid points. There is of course the spectre of potential vaping bans in various parts of the world, which taints the product somewhat.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:42PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:42PM (#702061) Journal

      Of course, those are just potential bans. And, their competition already has real bans.