Uber Loses $900 Million In Second Quarter; Urged By Investors To Sell Off Self-Driving Division (bloomberg.com)

Last week, Uber reported a second-quarter loss of $891 million, even though it brought in $2.8 billion in revenue. "While it's a 16 percent improvement from a year earlier, the loss follows a rare profit posted in the first quarter, thanks largely to the sale of overseas assets," reports Bloomberg. As a result, the company is being pressured by investors to sell its self-driving cars unit, which Uber is spending $125-200 million a quarter to maintain. From the report: Even after increased spending last quarter, revenue growth is slowing. Sales rose 63 percent to $2.8 billion in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. The rate in the first quarter was 70 percent. [Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi] Khosrowshahi is pouring large, undisclosed sums of money into food delivery, logistics and autonomous-car technology. The San Francisco-based company has said the food delivery business, Uber Eats, represents more than 10 percent of its gross bookings. Growth in that segment may be masking a slowdown in Uber's main business.

Comments

Re:interesting

[phantomfive]

They are not interested in a company that does ride sharing AND self driving. If they wanted a self driving car company, they would invest in a self driving car company.

I think part of the problem is they'd prefer to invest in a self-driving car company that doesn't kill people.

Uber needs the self driving division

[rsilvergun]

because long term somebody is going to crack down on their flagrant abuse of the term 'contractor' and eventually make them treat their employees as such. Their plan is to replace the employees before it becomes an issue. But even if they never build a self driving car they're going to need patents to defend themselves and eke out favorable license deals with..

Doesn't need to invent the self driving car

[perpenso]

Uber does not need to be the inventor of the self driving car. They only need to be a user of the self driving car. And frankly they are behind in self-driving R&D and doing a crappy job at it as well.

The question no one is asking

[MikeDataLink]

How is this even possible?

Seriously. Look at their business model. They have a frakin' smartphone app. They don't own the cars or have employees and they take a 25% cut of every ride.

Please tell me how they can spend $3Bn a year in the first place? What are they spending it on? Two college kids in dorm room could write the app and keep it updated.

Mike