Monday, November 4, 2019
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Uber lost $1.1 billion last quarter, says rides are profitable (sort of)
Enlarge (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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.
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Uber’s losses top $1 billion, trumping better than expected revenues
Better than expected revenues couldn’t divert investor attention from the fact that Uber still managed to lose more than $1 billion in the most recent quarter as the company’s stock fell in after-hours trading.
There are bright spots in the latest earnings report, not least that the company managed to stanch the bleeding that had cost the company over $5 billion in the previous quarter.
Revenue grew to $3.8 billion, up from $2.9 billion in the year-ago period, representing a 30% boost. But even as Uber’s core business shows signs of stabilizing and its core markets continue to show growth, its other business units appear to be hemorrhaging cash at increasingly high rates.
“Our results this quarter decisively demonstrate the growing profitability of our Rides segment,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, the company’s chief executive, in a statement. “Rides Adjusted EBITDA is up 52% year-over-year and now more than covers our corporate overhead. Revenue growth and take rates in our Eats business also accelerated nicely. We’re pleased to see the impact that continued category leadership, greater financial discipline, and an industry-wide shift towards healthier growth are already having on our financial performance.”
Losses in earnings at the company’s Uber Eats business grew 67% to $316 million from $189 million in the year-ago period. And performance in the company’s freight division looks even worse. Losses in freight ballooned by 161%, growing to $81 million from $31 million in the same quarter of 2018.
Also contributing to the company’s losses for the quarter were stock-based compensation expenses, which added another $401 million to the tallies against the company.
Given that the lock-up period is about to end for institutional investors, that could spell even more trouble for the company — as institutional investors who bought into the company before its public offering may look to sell.
That said, Uber has taken a number of steps to correct its course and put the company on a path to profitability, which Khosrowshahi says should happen in the next two years.
In October, the company announced the last of three rounds of sweeping layoffs at the company that saw 1,185 staffers lose their jobs. Khosrowshahi called the layoffs a chance to ensure that the company was “structured for success for the next few years.” In an email to staff, he wrote, “This has resulted in difficult but necessary changes to ensure we have the right people in the right roles in the right locations, and that we’re always holding ourselves accountable to top performance.”
With the layoffs behind it, Uber can now focus on some of the big operational challenges it had set for itself through the reorganization that the company has announced. That includes adding new features and technologies to its Uber Eats delivery program (despite what recent losses at GrubHub may imply about the food delivery business) and pressing forward with another darling of the tech set these days — the company’s financial services platform.
The launch of this new platform, coupled with a slew of announcements from the company in September, show that Uber may have dialed back on its ambitions, but not by much. As Khosrowshahi said at the event, “We want to be the operating system for your everyday life…. A one-click gateway to everything that Uber can offer you.”
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Sunday, November 3, 2019
Motorola One Hyper certified by NTBC, launch confirmed
Motorola’s first pop-up selfie camera phone, Motorola One Hyper could launch soon. The smartphone has been reportedly certified by NTBC in Thailand. There is no official confirmation that Motorola will be launching another One-series smartphone, but the device has leaked in prior reports. While manufacturers have adopted the pop-up camera design and brought it to their mid-range devices, Motorola is yet to introduce it in its phones.
According to previous leaks, Motorola is all set to showcase their take on the full-display smartphone. It is expected to be a budget device. The Motorola One Hyper may feature a 6.4-inch 1080p panel with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. It is said to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset. The device could come equipped with 4GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
In the optics department, Motorola One Hyper is tipped to feature a 64MP rear camera. As of now, we have seen 64MP camera smartphones from Xiaomi, Realme, and Samsung. Coming to the highlight of the smartphone, the pop-up module is likely to house a 32MP selfie camera module. Hence, no notch on the display. The pictures also show a glowing ring around the Motorola logo on the rear panel. It may compensate for the loss of the notification light from the front.
The Motorola One Hyper is tipped to launch with Android 10 on board. While it may belong to the Motorola One-series of smartphones, it may not be a part of Android One program, just like the recently launched Motorola One Macro.
Further, Motorola One Hyper is expected to pack a 3600mAh battery. There is no word on the launch date and pricing of the One Hyper yet. However, Motorola is holding an event on November 13 in Los Angeles where it is expected to unveil the foldable Razr phone.
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