Uber Is Preparing for an IPO It Might Not Even Need: Shira Ovide

Uber Technologies Inc.’s new chief executive officer has been projecting the image of a kinder, gentler, more humble and responsible company. These are all good things. Yet under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber continues to articulate a perhaps contradictory strategy: He wants the company to spend like crazy but also to pare costs and prepare for an IPO next year.

The cherry-picked financials that Uber disclosed on Wednesday showed a large and fast-growing company that continues to post hefty losses. Uber said that in the first quarter it generated about $2.6 billion in revenue, mostly from the share of each Uber ride that the company keeps after handing over the vast majority to drivers. That was a 70 percent jump from a year earlier, Bloomberg News reported.