Beyonce was an early investor in UBER, which had its IPO last week.
There were reports that she owned 6 million shares of UBER stock, which would now be worth close to $300 million.
This got the BeyHive excited.
Beyoncé performed for Uber in 2015 and instead of accepting her $6m pay cheque, she requested to be paid in stocks, today it’s worth over $300m. Last year she took half of the $8m from coachella in exchange for the rights to the show, Netflix paid her $60m for it. Her acumen >>> https://t.co/k4un1FM1Ka
— Kelvin Lee Jones (@KelvinLeeJones1) May 14, 2019
Unfortunately, it wasn't true. Celebrity Net Worth's Brian Warner explains:
“Beyonce was given $6 million worth of restricted stock units (RSUs). I think this huge distinction is where the fake news insanity of this story has gotten out of control. If you didn’t understand that Beyonce got $6 million worth of RSUs, as opposed to 6 million shares, you might have assumed that with 6 million shares at an IPO stock price of $45, Beyonce’s stake would be worth $300 million.”
What really happened is that Beyonce got $6 million worth of shares at a time when the company was valued at $50 billion. Assuming she held on to all of those shares, at Uber's current market cap of $67 billion, her stake would be worth around $9 million. A very nice win, but certainly not as awesome as saying she made $300 million off Uber.
Two more quick caveats – The above math assumes her shares weren't diluted at all between 2015 and 2018. That's also probably not true. Uber had at least three other huge raises between 2015 and 2018. At each raise her stake would be diluted somewhat. And secondly, if her shares are worth $9m today, that's before taxes.
$9 million is still a very nice chunk of change. But if she had put that $6 million in the S&P Index in 2015 it would also now be worth around $9 million and with no chance of dilution.