Uber Declares $708 Million Loss as Finance Head Leaves Company

AFP

Uber has declared a $708 million quarterly loss following their $991 million loss three months ago, while its head of finance Gautam Gupta is leaving the company.

“The ride-hailing company on Wednesday told the Wall Street Journal that first-quarter revenue was $3.4 billion, up 18% from the fourth quarter,” WSJ reported this week. “Its loss, excluding employee stock compensation and other items, was $708 million, narrower than the $991 million reported three months earlier.”

“The company, which has raised some $15 billion in equity and debt funding, said it still has $7.2 billion of cash left on hand, about the same as it had at the end of last year,” they continued, adding that since Uber is privately held “it isn’t required to release financial results, but since April has begun offering a glimpse as it considers an eventual initial public offering.”

Despite the loss, Uber remain optimistic about their reports, with one spokesman for the company claiming that “The narrowing of our losses in the first quarter puts us on a good trajectory towards profitability.”

Uber is also currently searching for a replacement to their head of finance Gautam Gupta, who is set to leave the company in July to join an unnamed startup in San Francisco.

“During my time here, I have been incredibly inspired by Uber’s deep operational excellence—so much so that I have decided to give it a try myself,” said Gupta to his finance team in an email, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Chief Executive Travis Kalanick, in his own note to employees, thanked Mr. Gupta for his work at Uber,” they additionally reported.

Uber has faced a variety of controversies and issues over the past few months, which culminated in the death of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s mother in an accident last weekend.

The company fired a senior engineer this week after he refused to return allegedly stolen documents to his previous employer, while Uber is currently under criminal investigation over their “Greyball” software, which allegedly allowed them to hide cars from law enforcement.

In April, it was revealed that Uber was nearly kicked off of the Apple App Store for secretly breaking privacy rules, and in March alone the company faced several other controversies, including the suspension of their self-driving car program following an accident, the resignation of company president Jeff Jones, and an apology from CEO Kalanick after he was caught arguing with an Uber driver.

In January, left-wing activists also boycotted Uber for refusing to engage in a protest of President Trump’s temporary travel ban, which they instead capitalized on by offering discounted rates while taxi drivers refused to pick up passengers.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.

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