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Adjusted net revenue last quarter increased 61 percent to $2.22 billion from the same period in 2016. Meanwhile, the total value of fares grew to $11 billion that quarter. It was the first full quarter under Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over the troubled business in September.
Despite a turbulent year for the ride-hailing company, sales were $7.5 billion. But the company also posted a substantial loss of $4.5 billion. There are few historical precedents for the scale of its loss.
Uber isn't publicly traded but has chosen to release select financial information to investors and the public in recent quarters. Last month, SoftBank Group Corp. led a $9.3 billion investment deal to make itself largest shareholder in the San Francisco-based company. The Japanese firm is betting that more people will choose to book rides through an app instead of driving themselves and that the business will find a way to make up for losses today.
The latest financial report shows the company continues to increase its revenue while making progress on cutting its loss. Uber's loss is based on generally accepted accounting principles, which includes writedowns, as well as the company's enormous legal expenses, such as the cost of defending against a trade secrets lawsuit from Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo. Uber agreed to give Waymo stock valued at $245 million to settle the suit last week.
[...] Uber hasn't made it easy to compare last year's financials to years past. The company declined to disclose complete data for 2016 and over time has changed how it accounts for revenue. Uber lost billions in China before selling its business there in 2016 in exchange for a 17.5 percent stake in homegrown rival Didi Chuxing.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 19 2018, @04:40PM
I'll do a different take from khallow.... This case is either not dissimilar to Amazon - a disruptive startup that requires massive funding and will require a long time to pay off for investors... Or it is Pets.com - an attempt at a disruptive startup that eats up lots and lots of money from investors who really, really, really should have known better.
7.5 billion of sales, yet 12 billion - 10^9 in total losses for a net loss of 4.5 * 10^9. Keep that up and you'll be talking real money.
Seriously, how do you convince investors that they should put literally Billions of Dollars into your enterprise that has not turned a profit, and you have no immediate plans to change things around in order to make a profit?
From this article [foxbusiness.com] at Uber lovin' Fox News:
"Pretty confident"? And yet there are individuals that have made to sink money into something that is "pretty confident" but could come back from a loss position but deliberately doesn't do so. Which means they're Gambling.
So why is it interesting? Because there are people who are allowed to roll dice of that size in the world, and our system lets them. It'll either be a tremendous success or the largest burst bubble in history. And that is interesting to watch happen.
I'm late - gotta go catch my Lyft out of here. No, wait, Uber. No, wait.... (actually I don't use ridesharing. ;) )
This sig for rent.