Privately held Uber Technologies Inc. disclosed its financial performance for the first time ever, saying it recorded net revenue of $6.5 billion, while adjusted net losses were $2.8 billion in 2016.
Uber declined to report first-quarter numbers, saying they were in line with expectations but that the company hasn’t yet presented them to investors. The company said it’s pleased to see revenue growth far exceeding losses last year and that its business is still performing well this year even as it faces unyielding controversy. “We’re fortunate to have a healthy and growing business, giving us the room to make the changes we know are needed on management and accountability, our culture and organization, and our relationship with drivers,” Rachel Holt, who runs Uber’s U.S. ride-hailing business, wrote in an emailed statement.
In recent months, Uber has seen an exodus of top executives as it investigates claims of sexual harassment and a toxic work culture. Uber is facing a lawsuit over self-driving car technology from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, backtracked on a program called Greyball that was used to deceive government officials and apologized after its chief executive officer was videotaped arguing with a driver. Travis Kalanick, the CEO, said he’s seeking a chief operating officer to help right the ship.
Uber’s business is massive and getting bigger. In the last three months of 2016, gross bookings increased 28 percent from the previous quarter to $6.9 billion. The company generated $2.9 billion in revenue, a 74 percent increase from the third quarter. Losses rose 6.1 percent over the same period to $991 million.
In total, these carefully selected and crafted numbers don’t tell the full Uber story, and could be a smokescreen to distract from all the negative press Uber has faced of late, which has also included a boycott protest and a high-profile legal fight with Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving unit. The picture we do get from the numbers would struggle to command the going rate for Uber, which some were doubtful of already.
Uber lost about $1 billion in China, according to Bloomberg and other sources, which adds up to an approximate net loss of $3.8 billion in 2016. That tally would be even larger if other costs which would be counted under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, had been factored.
All totaled, Uber’s loss would easily place it among the top 10 largest GAAP net losses by public companies in the fiscal year most closely mirroring the 2016 calendar year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission data crunched by Audit Analytics, a financial reporting research company.
The net loss Uber pointed to, $2.8 billion excluding its China losses and other factors, is larger than the non-GAAP net loss for all but one company in the S&P 500 index: ConocoPhilips which reported a non-GAAP loss of $3.3 billion for the year, Audit Analytics reported. Some companies that would likely rank higher than Uber on a GAAP-accounting basis would fall lower on a non-GAAP list. For instance, Hess Corp. reported a GAAP loss of $6.1 billion but a non-GAAP loss of slightly less than $1.5 billion.
Privately held Uber Technologies Inc. disclosed its financial performance for the first time ever, saying it recorded net revenue of $6.5 billion, while adjusted net losses were $2.8 billion in 2016.
