So, this might be me just being dumb, but I don't understand how Benchmark has made any money whatsoever on this deal. Not yet.

And what I mean by that is this: they gave Uber money for shares. But they have not yet sold the shares to anybody, b/c no acquisition or IPO. Other investors buy more shares, but that's not a liquidity event, is it?

Benchmark has a whole boatload of paper profits that they can't return to their LPs, not yet at least.

Or am I crossed up here? Could they, or have they, done some kind of private sale? I kind of doubt it but could easily be wrong here. Is there some kind of financial instrument to cash out early I'm ignorant of?