UBER - Uber Technologies, Inc.
| Previous Close | 35.82 |
| Open | 36.16 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 800 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 1400 |
| Day's Range | 35.26 - 36.42 |
| 52 Week Range | 13.71 - 47.08 |
| Volume | 19,057,919 |
| Avg. Volume | 38,252,995 |
| Market Cap | 62.094B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | N/A |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -2.95 |
| Earnings Date | Aug. 06, 2020 - Aug. 10, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 40.03 |
- Bloomberg
Russia’s Yandex Aims to Double Self-Driving Fleet With Hyundai
(Bloomberg) -- Yandex NV will test a driverless car it developed with Hyundai Motor Co. in Detroit as the Russian technology giant makes plans to approximately double its fleet of self-driving vehicles.Yandex plans to buy 100 of the cars, which are souped-up versions of Hyundai’s Sonata, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The test-drives, which had been planned around the now-canceled Detroit Auto Show, will commence on public roads in the city once lockdown restrictions are lifted, it said.Yandex and the South Korean company announced their partnership last year, seeking to create both a prototype of a driverless car and an autonomous control system that could be marketed to rival car manufacturers and car-sharing startups. The new, fourth-generation Hyundai model has been tweaked to help the system better detect what’s around the vehicles.The new Sonata has nine sensors, up from six, and has moved the radar system from underneath the bumpers to the roof, improving the system’s ability to distinguish objects around the car. Lidars, laser-based systems for measuring distance from a target, have also been moved to improve visibility. A human driver will be present in the car, but the vehicle should operate autonomously.Yandex operates a taxi service with its autonomous vehicles in the Russian city of Innopolis, though most of its fleet is currently occupied with test runs, which will gradually teach its driving software the skills it needs to react to incidents on the road. The company’s autonomous fleet, which recently exceeded 100 cars, have run 3 million autonomous miles, in cities including Moscow and Tel-Aviv.The road to mass-market robo-taxis has been fraught, with developers burning cash to create cars that can safely operate without a driver and win regulators’ approval. And the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying lockdowns have hit the industry hard.Read more: The State of the Self-Driving Car Race 2020Competitors including General Motors Co.’s Cruise and Uber Technologies Inc. have cut staff recently, while Ford Motor Co. shifted plans to start self-driving services by a year to 2022. Self-driving trucks startup Starsky Robotics shut down in March with its founder saying that “supervised machine learning doesn’t live up to the hype.”Still, the promise of driverless vehicles and the revolution they could bring to everything from personal transportation to logistics, means the technology is still attracting investors. Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to acquire autonomous vehicle startup Zoox Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Analysts from Morgan Stanley estimate that Amazon could save $20 billion a year with the technology, which would also allow the e-commerce giant to compete in ride-sharing and food delivery.Read more: Amazon Buying Zoox May Save $20 Billion, Put Tesla on Its HeelsYandex, Russia’s largest internet-search engine and ride-hailing operator, has spent $35 million over the past three years to develop its self-driving cars, using technologies such as machine learning and image recognition from its other businesses.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool
Grubhub Says It Wants a Breakup Fee if Regulators Stop Uber’s Acquisition Deal
As food delivery service Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) moves closer to a deal that would sell itself to Uber (NYSE: UBER), sources indicate that the closing might still be threatened by a new demand from Grubhub. While the two companies apparently came close to agreement on the sale price, expressed in terms of Uber stocks per Grubhub stock, talks may have reached an impasse over the latest development. Uber would pay this fee to the food delivery service if regulators block the acquisition.
- Yahoo Finance Video
Uber, Lyft suspend services amid protests
Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Ines Ferre discuss Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash after the companies said they’re suspending operations.
- TechCrunch
The Station: Amazon eyes Zoox, Aurora goes back to school and Cabana hits the road
Take a look at the most recent survey we conducted with a bunch of venture capitalists about mobility and what areas interest them most. A photo below, courtesy of Cris Moffitt, shows a sliver of the thousands of bikes at the yard in North Carolina. Keaks (Kirsten Korosec) has been working on a big(ish) story about JUMP for the last week.
- Motley Fool
Uber Rolls Out Rides By the Hour in the U.S
Uber riders can keep the same driver for an hour to run errands or take a family member to the doctor.
- Reuters
Italian magistrates target Uber Italia over alleged rider exploitation - sources
Italian magistrates have placed an Italian unit of Uber Technologies under special administration as part of an investigation into alleged exploitation of food delivery riders, three people familiar with the case said on Friday. Uber Italia said it had made its Uber Eats platform available to restaurants and couriers in full respect of the law and it condemned any form of illegal intermediation. "We participate actively in the debate around regulation which we believe will give the food delivery sector the necessary legal security to prosper in Italy," Uber Italia said in an emailed statement.
- TechCrunch
Uber's latest feature lets riders book by the hour and make multiple stops
Uber is bringing a new feature to the U.S. that lets users book rides for $50 an hour and make multiple stops as the ride-hailing company tries to respond to changing consumer needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The product will be available in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Tacoma, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Uber said it expects to expand this feature into other U.S. cities in the coming weeks. Uber made the move in an effort to offer riders a more convenient way to get things done, and to provide an additional earnings opportunity for drivers as we move forward in this "new normal," Niraj Patel, director of rider operations at Uber, said in a statement.
- Motley Fool
Uber Exec Unloads Shares Following Rally on Layoffs
In an internal memo announcing the most recent cut, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi confirmed that the ridesharing segment was down 80% year over year because people simply aren't traveling much during the public health crisis. One Uber exec has taken the opportunity to unload the majority of her shares. In a fresh Form 4 filing this week, Uber disclosed that communications and public policy chief Jill Hazelbaker had sold off the bulk of her holdings between May 21 and May 26.
- Reuters
Uber launches hourly ride booking option in some U.S. cities
The option, which is already available in a handful of cities in Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, will cost $50 per hour. Fares for regular Uber rides are generally based on the level of demand and the trip distance. Uber said it decided to expand the hourly feature to the U.S. after riders requested an option for extended trips during the pandemic to avoid exposure to different drivers and vehicles when taking multiple trips in a confined time period.
- Motley Fool
Wall Street Has Given Up on These 3 Stocks, and That's a Huge Mistake
There are hundreds of stocks that would have to more than double to revisit their 52-week highs. Let's check out three out-of-favor stocks that are ready to prove the naysayers wrong.
- TechCrunch
Uber UK launches Work Hub for drivers to find other gig jobs during COVID-19
Uber U.K. has launched a Work Hub for drivers to view a selection of temporary work opportunities with other companies as a way to supplement pandemic-hit ride-hailing earnings during the coronavirus crisis. The Work Hub sits within the Uber driver app and displays offers of work from third party providers -- including jobs that involve using a car to make deliveries -- offering alternative gigs to drivers whose earnings have been affected by weak demand for ride-hailing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The recruiter, Adecco Group, is also offering temp work via the U.K. Work Hub for drivers.
- Bloomberg
SoftBank Doubles Vision Fund Chief’s Pay Despite Record Loss
(Bloomberg) -- The head of SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund received a substantial increase in compensation even as the investment business delivered a $17.7 billion loss.Rajeev Misra earned 1.61 billion yen ($15 million) in the year ended March 31, more than double his pay a year earlier, SoftBank said in a statement on Friday. The Vision Fund lost 1.9 trillion yen in the period, triggering the worst loss ever in the Japanese company’s 39-year history.SoftBank had to write down the valuations of companies like WeWork and Uber Technologies Inc. because of business missteps and the coronavirus fallout. Its return on the fund was negative 6%, compared with 62% just a year ago. Still, Misra was SoftBank’s second-highest-paid executive last year after Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, even though Misra received no bonus and most of his compensation was in base pay. Founder Masayoshi Son took a 9% compensation cut, earning 209 million yen.“What kind of message is Son sending by giving Misra a raise despite the disastrous results he delivered?” said Atul Goyal, senior analyst at Jefferies Group. “The optics is just not good.”The pay hike for Misra comes at a time when the Vision Fund is planning deep cuts in staffing. The reductions across all levels of staff could affect about 10% of the fund’s workforce of roughly 500, according to people familiar with the matter. The Vision Fund, which has stopped making new investments after spending 85% of its capital, lists 30 people as investors on its website, including all of its managing partners, partners and directors.The fund has struggled since WeWork botched its efforts to go public last year and SoftBank stepped in to bail the company out. The Vision Fund currently manages more than 80 portfolio companies, but Son expects about 15 of the fund’s startups will likely go bankrupt while predicting another 15 will thrive.Separately, SoftBank is moving two managing partners at the Vision Fund into new roles. Akshay Naheta will become senior vice president, assisting Son in investments and providing strategic advice. Kentaro Matsui will transition to a senior advisory role at SoftBank Group.Claure, who helped close Sprint Corp.’s merger with T-Mobile US Inc. and is leading the effort to turn around WeWork, made 2.11 billion yen, a 17% raise. He also oversees a Latin American investment fund for SoftBank.SoftBank declined to comment on the reasons for changes in pay.Chief Strategy Officer Katsunori Sago earned 1.11 billion yen, a 13% increase for the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive. Ken Miyauchi, head of SoftBank’s domestic telecom operation, made 699 million yen, a 43% drop. Simon Segars, head of its ARM Holdings Plc chip unit, did not make the list because his pay dropped below 100 million yen. Segars earned 1.1 billion yen the previous year.Ronald Fisher, Son’s long-time lieutenant and SoftBank Group vice chairman, saw his pay plunge 79% to 680 million yen. Fisher’s remuneration from the Vision Fund, where he runs the U.S. operations, totaled 1.27 billion yen, including a 767 million yen bonus. But he lost 701 million yen in compensation not related to the fund. SoftBank said the drop reflects a decline in stock price, but didn’t provide further details.SoftBank’s disastrous bet on WeWork has been viewed internally as Fisher’s project. Before SoftBank first invested in the company in 2017, Fisher met with executives at IWG Plc, a European competitor with a much lower valuation and many more sites, according to people familiar with the matter. Fisher interpreted the unfavorable metrics as a sign of growth potential. A month later, the Vision Fund led a $4.4 billion investment round into WeWork at a $20 billion valuation.Last year, after WeWork’s effort to go public fell apart, SoftBank stepped in to organize a bailout and put Claure in charge of turning around the business. But the pandemic has hammered its operations as workers shy away from gathering in shared office spaces. Earlier this month, SoftBank wrote down the value of its stake to $2.9 billion, more than 90% lower than its peak.(Updates with analyst comment in fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Oilprice.com
Buffet, Bezos And Blackrock Are Betting Big On This $30 Trillion Mega-Trend
There’s a brand-new $30 trillion investment trend that has investors across the globe giving on up old way of doing things, and focusing more on sustainable investments
- Zacks
MoneyGram Ties Up With Uber to Offer Rebates to Drivers
MoneyGram (MGI) partners with Uber to provide to drivers rebates amid the pandemic.
- Bloomberg
How Not to Help Restaurants During the Pandemic
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Alarmed at high fees, restaurant owners are demanding that delivery services such as Grubhub Inc. cut them a break during the pandemic. Unfortunately, politicians are listening.New York City imposed price controls on the apps this week, prohibiting them from charging delivery fees of more than 15%. San Francisco, Seattle and Washington have made similar interventions. Many other cities will be tempted to follow suit. They shouldn’t.Higher prices for delivery reflect rising demand in a period when most of the country is stuck at home. If restaurants find these fees too burdensome, they can hire their own delivery workers or switch to another app — and in New York City, there are at least a dozen, so there’s no lack of competition. It’s true that Grubhub and Uber Eats, two of the biggest delivery apps, are contemplating a merger. But it’s hard to argue that either has engaged in predatory pricing when neither makes any money. Uber Eats, in fact, is losing about $300 million a quarter.Which suggests a bigger problem with price caps. Although delivery apps have proved quite popular, no one has devised a decent business model for them. At the moment, they’re kept afloat thanks to lavish subsidies from investors. That means consumers get deliveries for much less than they’d otherwise have to pay, and restaurants, far from being scammed, are in fact paying significantly below what the market would demand absent such support.This may or may not be a good bet by investors, but in the meantime the arrangement creates substantial benefits. Restaurants can connect with a much larger customer base, offload the hassles of delivery and market themselves efficiently without having to add staff. Apps can compete for market share with attractive prices. And customers can choose from an astonishing variety of cuisines while having their orders dropped off for a relative pittance.Price controls won’t improve this model. To the contrary, they’ll induce apps to pass along the added costs to customers, thereby reducing demand for the very restaurants they’re intended to help, or to narrow their coverage areas to only the most profitable addresses. More customers will order food for pickup to avoid the fees, increasing the risk to public health. And investors may tire all the sooner of subsidizing loss-making services whose potential revenue is artificially capped.Rather than attempting to re-engineer the delivery economy, city governments should be laying the groundwork so that restaurants and other small businesses can safely reopen, while Congress should focus on getting direct aid to these companies, in particular by fixing some of the perverse incentives created by previous relief measures.The unfortunate fact is that restaurants are in for an extended period of turmoil. Policy makers should do all they can to help them out — and avoid adding to the damage along the way.Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch
Vaya Africa launches electric ride-hail taxi network
Vaya Africa, a ride-hail mobility venture founded by Zimbabwean mogul Strive Masiyiwa, has launched an electric taxi service and charging network in Zimbabwe with plans to expand across the continent. The program goes live in Zimbabwe this week, as Vaya finalizes partnerships to begin on-demand electric taxi and delivery services in markets that could include Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia.
- Bloomberg
SoftBank’s Vision Fund Is Planning to Cut 10% of Staff
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund is planning deep cuts in staffing after reporting about $18 billion in losses from the declining value of its startups, according to people familiar with the matter.The reductions could affect about 10% of the fund’s workforce of roughly 500, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel decisions. The Vision Fund’s headquarters are in London, with additional operations in Tokyo and California. The cuts will be across all levels of staff, said one person.A spokesman for the Vision Fund declined to comment.SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and his $100 billion Vision Fund changed the tech industry by handing out enormous checks to relatively unproven startups. But the fund went from SoftBank’s main profit contributor a year ago to its biggest drag on earnings. It lost 1.9 trillion yen ($17.7 billion) last fiscal year after writing down the value of investments, including WeWork and Uber Technologies Inc.Son originally said he hoped to raise a new Vision Fund every two to three years, but he has conceded he can’t attract money now because of the poor performance. The fund, led by Rajeev Misra, operates as a SoftBank affiliate with most of the money coming from limited partners, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co.“It makes sense that SoftBank is cutting positions at the Vision Fund as they are in an extremely difficult situation, and they may start targeting highly paid workers to cut costs,” said Koji Hirai, head of M&A advisory firm Kachitas Corp. in Tokyo.The Vision Fund grew rapidly after launch three years ago as Misra recruited scores of people from the finance industry, including many of his former colleagues from Deutsche Bank. Among its managing partners are several of the German bank’s ex-employees, including Colin Fan, former co-head of its investment banking division.The fund also set up an unusual compensation structure that includes a $5 billion loan to employees. The debt is swapped for equity in the fund and generates profit when deals make money -- and losses when they don’t, scaled by seniority, people familiar with the matter have said. The poor performance so far, along with the layoffs, may prompt some employees to look for other positions.“One side effect is that the best people at SoftBank may exit to find better funds,” said Hirai. “If so, their fund business may become even worse, sliding down from a slope.”The Vision Fund has struggled since WeWork botched its efforts to go public last year and SoftBank stepped in to bail the company out. The Vision Fund currently manages more than 80 portfolio companies, but Son expects about 15 of the fund’s startups will likely go bankrupt while predicting another 15 will thrive.“Vision Fund’s results are not something to be proud of,” Son said earlier this month as he announced record losses. “If the results are bad, you can’t raise money from investors. Things aren’t good, that’s why we are investing with our own money.”The fund has already unwound some investments, including selling a nearly 50% stake in dog-walking startup Wag Labs back to the company last year. Son has said he plans to sell off about $42 billion in assets to finance stock buybacks and pay down debt.SoftBank disclosed it’s unloading some shares in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and is in talks to sell about $20 billion of T-Mobile US Inc., Bloomberg News reported. It’s also exploring a deal for its minority stake in industrial software maker OSIsoft LLC that could be worth $1.5 billion.SoftBank shares, after plummeting in March, have recovered and are little changed for the year. The stock rose just more than 1% in Tokyo trading.One emerging question is how Alibaba -- SoftBank’s most valuable holding -- will be affected by the clash between the U.S. and China. A bill just approved by the U.S. Senate could force Chinese companies like Alibaba to stop trading their shares on U.S. exchanges.“The big picture is SoftBank is caught up with U.S.-China conflict right now, and SoftBank may need to conduct a drastic restructuring if Alibaba was delisted from New York,” said Hirai. “Its main banks and the capital markets are anxiously awaiting an outcome for the situation.”(Updates with additional details starting in the first paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Amazon Will Take Robot Cars to a Whole New Level
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s interest in acquiring a self-driving car pioneer is the prime example (pun intended) of how expectations for driverless vehicles have been recalibrated.The e-commerce giant is in advanced talks to buy Zoox Inc. for less than the $3.2 billion at which it was valued in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Given the California-based startup’s approach to autonomous cars, its fate is particularly instructive.In a very crowded field, Zoox was practically alone in aiming to build a whole new kind of electric-powered vehicle, and to operate the fleet itself. Peers such as Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, General Motors Co.’s Cruise unit, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG’s joint venture Argo AI, and Aurora Innovations Inc. have focused solely on developing the self-driving technology that could subsequently be fitted into vehicles.Zoox wanted to be Tesla Inc., Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc. all rolled into one.Back in 2015, that seemed like an attractive proposition. If the triple threat to the automotive industry was autonomous technology, electric drivetrains and ride-hailing, why not embrace all three? After all, there were expectations that by 2020 robotaxis would ferry you around the world’s metropolises. Capital flowed into self-driving car startups, typified by the $1 billion GM spent acquiring Cruise in 2016.Those dreams, needless to say, have failed to materialize. Companies that had aimed to jump straight to the fourth of five levels of autonomy have quietly downshifted. (The first level of self-driving encompasses driver-assistance functions such as cruise control, and the fifth is full automation.) Bloomberg New Energy Finance doesn’t expect vehicles with Level Four automation to start gaining traction until 2034. Even then, they will likely represent just 831,000 of the 95 million-unit global car market that year.What’s more, the expense of developing, building and operating a fleet of self-driving cars would be considerable. Even deep-pocketed Alphabet and GM have sought outside investment for their efforts. Established carmakers are meanwhile focusing their capital on electric cars, a more imminent threat. And owning and operating a fleet is expensive too. Zoox had a tough sell to investors: In 15 years’ time, it might have been an attractive business.Which brings us to Amazon. Even if robotaxis aren’t coming any time soon, there are alternative applications for autonomous technology that fall squarely in the Seattle-based firm’s wheelhouse, namely, logistics. Given Amazon’s shipping costs are set to hit $90 billion a year, tech from Zoox could help save $20 billion in shipping costs, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. Its solutions could be used across warehousing and distribution. Buying Zoox could take Amazon's other moves in this field — an existing investment in Aurora and experiments with self-driving truck specialist Embark and electric vanmaker Rivian — to a whole new level.Amazon has become the fantasy acquirer for any number of companies seeking a soft landing: theater chains, brick-and-mortar retailers, food deliverers, mobile carriers, real estate brokers, dental suppliers, film studios and plenty more besides.Sometimes, just sometimes, those deals make sense. Zoox is one of them.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch
Toro snags $4M seed investment to monitor data quality
Toro's founders started at Uber helping monitor the data quality in the company's vast data catalogs, and they wanted to put that experience to work for a more general audience. The round was co-led by Costanoa Ventures and Point72 Ventures, with help from a number of individual investors. Company co-founder and CEO Kyle Kirwan says the startup wanted to bring to data the kind of automated monitoring we have in applications performance monitoring products.
- Bloomberg
As Uber Drivers Hope for Unemployment Benefits or U.S. Loans, a Lucky Few Get Both
(Bloomberg) -- Ron Parise has spent about 50 hours a week for the last two years on the roads of Cape Coral, Florida, shuttling tourists and snowbirds between their rentals and the airport for Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. All that came to a sudden stop in late March, when the arrivals gates went quiet and Parise’s wife insisted he stay home to avoid exposing himself to the coronavirus.Parise, 73, used his newfound free time to apply for any public assistance program for which he thought he might qualify. Nothing came through until early this month, when he received $11,500. It’s a small-business loan forgivable under certain conditions, part of the $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to encourage companies to keep paying employees during the pandemic. Parise believes he qualifies because he owns a one-man business to support his job driving.The state of Florida initially told Parise he wasn’t eligible for unemployment insurance, but he recently began receiving checks under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which gives relief to independent contractors who have been impacted by the pandemic. This created an ethical dilemma for Parise, and perhaps a legal one, too. The small-business money is supposed to keep bosses like Parise from laying off workers— in this case, just Parise. Unemployment benefits are intended for people who have lost their jobs. “I don’t want to seem like I’m double dipping,” he said. “I’m happy to stay home and collect the government money if I can.” Parise said he hasn’t decided what to do but is leaning toward taking taking both and paying back the loan before it comes due in two years.While Uber considers its drivers to be independent contractors, some like Parise set up small businesses to manage their income from driving. The designation helps minimize personal and tax liabilities and for Parise, validates his status as an entrepreneur in his own right. “I’m more of an independent business person,” he said. “I hire Uber to send me customers.”Deciphering the rules around the government’s financial-assistance programs is a widespread challenge, and ride-hailing drivers face a particularly complicated route. The pandemic has left most of them unable to find enough work to get by. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft haven’t altered their stance that drivers are independent contractors, not employees, disqualifying them from unemployment insurance in most states. The companies have directed drivers toward at least three alternatives, including the two Parise applied for.Congress created Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to help provide financial relief to workers normally ineligible for unemployment benefits, and Uber successfully lobbied for its drivers to be included. States manage the federally funded program, and implementation has been patchy at best. Many drivers have yet to receive money or even confirmation they’ll get it eventually, said Harry Campbell, who runs a popular website for drivers called the Rideshare Guy. “Some people are getting unemployment,” he said. “Some aren’t.”The financial-aid programs for small businesses have been similarly inconsistent. Tied up in the practical questions of where drivers can turn for help is an unresolved fight over whether Uber and Lyft’s workers should be considered employees of the companies. Many drivers, along with labor groups and Democratic public officials, have said the companies are cheating drivers out of benefits and offloading the costs onto taxpayers. “They are using the moment to crystallize the fact that, in their view, these workers should not have the benefit of employee status,” said Brian Chen, a staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. Ride-hailing companies oppose efforts by drivers to access traditional unemployment benefits from states, which are financed through payroll taxes. Uber and Lyft are contesting a California law intended to classify workers like their drivers as employees, and the state recently sued them in response. Most drivers, said Chen, would receive more generous benefits from state programs, an assertion Uber contests. “Congress fully funded pandemic unemployment assistance for gig workers so that every state, many of which face historic deficits, could give these workers immediate financial support at no cost to their own state funds,” said Harry Hartfield, a spokesman for Uber.Lyft and Uber would have been on the hook for $413 million in unemployment insurance costs over the last five years in California alone, according to a study published this month by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for Research and Labor. A similar analysis by officials in New Jersey said Uber would have faced a bill of $530 million for unemployment and disability from 2014 to 2018. Tally up the 48 other states, and you’re looking at a significant additional cost for two companies that have never been profitable.“I don’t want to seem like I’m double dipping”New York courts have ruled multiple times in favor of Uber drivers seeking unemployment benefits in the last year, but only after a lengthy process that’s onerous for both applicants and the state, said Nicole Salk, a senior staff attorney with Legal Services NYC who has represented several drivers in such cases. “It causes problems for the whole system.” she said.On Monday, four drivers for Uber and Lyft and a worker advocacy group sued Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York Labor Department in federal court, claiming the state failed to pay unemployment benefits promptly. Jack Sterne, a spokesman for the governor, said New York is ahead of other states in its response to the jobs crisis and is processing more than 100,000 applications a week for the federal unemployment program. “During this pandemic emergency, we have been moving heaven and earth to get every single unemployed New Yorker their benefits as quickly as possible—including Uber and Lyft drivers who are treated no different than any other worker,” Sterne wrote in an emailed statement.Amara Sanogo, a driver in the Bronx, is living off his credit cards and helping his three children with their Zoom video curriculum as he waits for a response from the state about whether he qualifies for benefits. When he applied nearly two months ago, Sanogo set up an online account on a state website and was told he’d get updates there. “Every day I check that account,” he said. “There are no more messages.” New York’s Labor Department is now advising gig economy workers to apply to the federal program instead of the state’s.For drivers who set up a business to manage their Uber income, there are signs of significant interest in the small-business programs. Ron Walter, a driver in the Denver area who primarily works for Uber and Grubhub Inc., wrote a blog post about his experience applying for a PPP loan, which companies don’t need to pay back as long as they keep paying employees and adhere to other guidelines. Walter’s blog post contained a link encouraging other drivers to apply through a website called Womply.com, which charges lenders a commission for sending them leads. Dozens of drivers clicked through the link and filled out applications, according to data Walter received from Womply that was reviewed by Bloomberg.Walter got a loan of $4,800 and anticipates he’ll have to pay it back. He didn’t apply for other government programs, he said, because it didn’t feel right. Since Walter mostly delivers food, he said he’s actually doing pretty well. He can squeeze more deliveries into every hour and gets paid more. “Traffic is a lot better, and parking is a lot better because everybody is staying home,” he said. But as the economy worsens, Walter worries demand is not going to last. At some point, he said, “people run out of money.”(Updates with lawsuit in the 12th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
CNW GroupRESAAS Announces Integration with Uber
VANCOUVER , May 26, 2020 /CNW/ - RESAAS Services Inc. ( TSX-V: RSS , OTCQB: RSASF), a technology platform for the real estate industry, is pleased to announce a new integration with Uber. Uber (NYSE: UBER) ...
- TechCrunch
Bolt, the European on-demand transport company, raises $109M on a $1.9B valuation
The Estonia-based company is today announcing that it has picked up an additional €100 million ($109 million) in a convertible note. The money is coming from a single investor, Naya Capital Management, which was also a major backer of the company in its last round, a $67 million Series C in July 2019. The funding is one more example of how investors are continuing to support their most promising, and/or most capitalised, portfolio companies as they face drastic losses of business during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can only be more complicated for a startup built on a business model that -- even in the best of times -- is very capital-intensive.
- Reuters
Uber cuts 600 jobs in India as lockdown hits business
Uber Technologies Inc has cut about 600 jobs in India as part of plans to reduce its global workforce by 23%, the company said on Tuesday, joining local rival Ola as the COVID-19 pandemic crushes demand for app-based cab services. Last week, Uber said it would focus on its core businesses in ride-hailing and food delivery and cut staffing globally in an attempt to become profitable despite the coronavirus pandemic. "The impact of Covid-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India SA with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce," Uber India and South Asia President Pradeep Parameswaran said.
- TechCrunch
Uber cuts 600 jobs in India
Uber is cutting 600 jobs in India, or 25% of its workforce in the country, it said on Tuesday as it looks to cut costs to steer through the coronavirus pandemic. The job cuts, which affect teams across customer and driver support, business development, legal, policy, marketing, and finance, are part of the company’s global restructuring that eliminated 6,700 jobs this month. The American giant, which claimed to be the top cab hailing service in India earlier this year, said it was providing 10 to 12 weeks of salary to the employees who were being let go, in addition to offering them medical insurance for the next six months.
- Oilprice.com
The $8 Trillion Megatrend Taking Wall Street By Storm
As COVID-19 continues to transform our economic reality, two megatrends are converging to create a once in a lifetime investment opportunity
