Uber Reports Another Loss For 4th Quarter

Uber reported another loss for the fourth quarter of the 2018 fiscal year when it released limited financial results this week. On an adjusted basis, the company’s losses for the quarter were 88 percent higher than the previous year. Many are seeing this as another stumble on its path to its initial public offering.

Uber reported a net loss of $865 million for the quarter. While the loss narrowed from the $2.2 billion reported in the same quarter a year ago, it is still a far cry from profitability. The company reported losses of $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2018.

Uber said that it earned $3 billion in revenue in the final three months of 2018. That was an increase of 2 percent from the prior quarter and a 25 percent increase from the same period a year ago. The results were helped by a 37 percent increase in gross bookings.

Fiscal year 2018 was the first full year under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. During his tenure, he has made many changes to the company, including expanding its food-delivery business, Uber Eats and offering bigger incentives and more promotions to add riders and drivers. He has also sold Uber’s business in Southeast Asia to Grab and merged its Russia business with Yandex.

It has been widely reported that Uber has confidentially filed initial paperwork to go public. Statements made by Khosrowshahi over the past year have repeatedly indicated that he intended for the company to go public in 2019.

Uber was privately valued at more than $70 billion last year, but there is speculation that it could be worth much more as a public company. As a private company, Uber is not required to disclose financial results, but has regularly done so to inform investors about its business.