I am sorry, but I don-t understand why they lose so much money. They take 30 % of all trips, they don-t have cars, they don-t pay salaries to drivers. Is it the infrastructure so expensive?
Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
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Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#62> Uber Technologies Inc.’s net loss widened to $1.46 billion in the third quarter, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as the ride-hailing leader struggled to fend off competition, legal challenges and regulatory scrutiny.
"according to people with knowledge of the matter.."
How is reporting like this legal? Is this not speculation?
It baffles me that no fact checking/ benchmarking exists for such a major news platform.
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#63Uber had $6.6bn on hand at the end of June [1]. That means they are down to $5.1bn. Absent cost-cutting, that implies a 9 to 12 month runway. Even if SoftBank injects $1bn, that could only mean a few months’ runway. A large fine in the Waymo case [2] could literally bankrupt them. [1] https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/23/uber-is-still-burning-cas... [2] https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/waymo-uber-tr...
the waymo case will certainly take some time to play out, wont it? I'm assuming year(s), but that's just a guess.
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Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#64I am sorry, but I don-t understand why they lose so much money. They take 30 % of all trips, they don-t have cars, they don-t pay salaries to drivers. Is it the infrastructure so expensive?
They have a lot of expensive developers, lawyers and marketing deals.
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#65Uber had $6.6bn on hand at the end of June [1]. That means they are down to $5.1bn. Absent cost-cutting, that implies a 9 to 12 month runway. Even if SoftBank injects $1bn, that could only mean a few months’ runway. A large fine in the Waymo case [2] could literally bankrupt them. [1] https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/23/uber-is-still-burning-cas... [2] https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/waymo-uber-tr...
Waymo won't bankrupt Uber. If Uber loses, they will appeal. Uber will run out of runway for other reasons before they're done with the appeal. What a loss to Waymo might do is make an Uber IPO much less attractive. It might even be the difference between an IPO happening and not happening. And that might be the difference between Uber getting another year or two of runway and them dying in 2018.
"Waymo won't bankrupt Uber. If Uber loses, they will appeal. "
So? They'd almost certainly be forced to put up a very large bond to do that, assuming they can get it.
In some jurisdictions, this can be 100% of judgement + interest. IIRC, in the 9th circuit, it's at the discretion of district courts, but given the financial situation, if they did have a multi-billion judgement against them, and not a lot of runway, what makes you think a judge won't make them put up a full bond to appeal?
These cases actually often do bankrupt businesses, and the predatory lawsuit creditors take over (though usually that happens more in patent cases) :)
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#66How much of it operating the part everyone is familiar with, vs investment into the self-driving cars and other expenses?
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#67> Uber Technologies Inc.’s net loss widened to $1.46 billion in the third quarter, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as the ride-hailing leader struggled to fend off competition, legal challenges and regulatory scrutiny. "according to people with knowledge of the matter.." How is reporting like this legal? Is this not speculation? It baffles me that no fact checking/ benchmarking exists for such a maj…
It's strange to me that you assume that just because sources aren't named in public that no fact checking occurred.
As far as legality, there is a system in place; if it's false, it's handled in civil court.
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#68I am sorry, but I don-t understand why they lose so much money. They take 30 % of all trips, they don-t have cars, they don-t pay salaries to drivers. Is it the infrastructure so expensive?
Marketing and ride subsidies?
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#69It is strange that private investors are willing to fund my discounted travel.
I seriously don't understand the endgame here. Apparently, it WOULD BE possible to completely kill off the legacy taxi industry given 10 years or so of artificially subsidized pricing. So I understand the concept of disrupting a previous oligarchy, replacing it with a new monopoly, and then profiting through rent seeking. But where are the barriers to entry that would allow Uber to solidify as that new monopoly? Ther…
"I seriously don't understand the endgame here."
The end game is owning logistics (IE all forms of delivery, etc). It's a dumb end game, but that's what it is!
Re: Uber’s Losses Widen as SoftBank Launches Bid to Buy Shares
#70I am sorry, but I don-t understand why they lose so much money. They take 30 % of all trips, they don-t have cars, they don-t pay salaries to drivers. Is it the infrastructure so expensive?
They subsidize rides (in many jurisdictions) so presumably they're not making much money on that 30% cut.