Japanese holding company SoftBank offered to purchase shares of Uber at a $48 billion valuation, a 30% discount from Uber’s most recent valuation of $68.5 billion. The key news causing the discount was the set of scandals that arose during 2017 — broadly, those summarized on this site.
The transaction ultimately went forward at the 30% discount.
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p.387)reports what he called “sleight of hand” to “prop[] up” the official value of Uber: SoftBank also purchased additional newly-issued shares of Uber at the company’s prior valuation of $68.5 billion. This allowed Uber and some investors to claim that Uber’s value was stable.