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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the somewhat-less-unprofitable dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Uber lost another $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2019, the company announced on Monday. This wasn't a surprise: Uber lost about the same amount in the first quarter of 2019 and lost even more last quarter.

Yet the company argues that things aren't as bad as that headline figure suggests. To show why, Uber broke its earnings down by business area, distinguishing its core "rides" app from Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and other operations.

Uber says that, if you exclude certain non-operating expenses—mainly interest, depreciation, and stock-based compensation—the "rides" app actually earned a substantial $631 million profit. That's enough to cover the company's core operating expenses, the company said. But Uber's profitability was dragged down by losses in its other businesses—mainly a $316 million loss from Uber Eats.

Of course, interest, depreciation, and stock-based compensation are real costs. So the fact that Uber looks less unprofitable excluding them isn't going to be particularly reassuring to Uber investors.

But the reason these numbers could ultimately be good news for investors is that they suggest Uber's core rides business might not be perpetually money-losing. If the "EBIDTA" profitability of the ride-hailing business continues to improve—it grew from $416 million in the year-ago quarter to $631 million last quarter on an EBITDA basis—the company could eventually reach honest-to-goodness profitability.


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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:29PM (3 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:29PM (#918278) Journal

    Uber Eats.

    But Uber's profitability was dragged down by losses in its other businesses—mainly a $316 million loss from Uber Eats.

    Well if it is losing money maybe it isn't gouging. I always just sort of assumed it would be.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:37PM (#918282)

    Losing? bzipitidoo is EXPERT at losing publicly https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34553&page=1&cid=918224#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] running from a fair question backed by fact he can't deny like all "his kind" do in addition to lying, sucking welfare ands shooting heroin hiding behind multiple fakenames online.

  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday November 09 2019, @04:21PM

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday November 09 2019, @04:21PM (#918311) Journal

    The "losses" are written off. The taxpayers subsidize everything.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @05:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @05:59PM (#918341)
    Maybe they are gouging, and that's why they're losing money. If you price yourself above what the market is willing to bear then you lose money because people will use alternatives instead of your products/services. If your customers can't see the value you're supposed to be adding with your high prices then they won't spend their money on you.