Uber Shows a Quarterly Profit, Sort of, Thanks to Grab Deal
- Investors agree to buy up to $600 million in Uber shares
- Coatue, Altimeter and TPG purchase values Uber at $62 billion
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Uber Technologies Inc., after years of historic losses, is laughing to itself this quarter. It turned a $2.5 billion profit during the first three months of this year -- technically.
The company recorded a profit on paper, after accounting for the value of selling its Southeast Asian business to Grab and its Russian business to Yandex. But it’s a different story without those windfalls. Uber had a loss of $312 million before interest, taxes and other expenses in the quarter, cutting those losses in half compared to the first three months of 2017, according to financials provided by Uber. That’s a marked improvement for a company that’s burned through more than $10 billion.