Uber Clips Its Own Unicorn Wings
The onetime unicorn is doing the prudent, if prosaic, thing by scaling back its ambitions and focusing on its core business.
Uber’s “magical” dreams give way to Covid reality.
Photographer: UberUber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told investors on a call in November that his goal was for the ride-hailing giant to be one of the world’s “magical” companies that can grow its revenue at “massive scale.” But now, the business challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic are forcing the onetime unicorn to pull back on grand ambitions that once included disrupting vast swaths of the economy. Perhaps Uber isn’t so magical after all. But that is fine.
In a Monday filing, Uber announced it will be laying off an additional 3,000 employees on top of the 3,700 job cuts it had already announced on May 6. The combined reductions are equivalent to about 25% of its workforce. Bloomberg News also reported Monday that Khosrowshahi sent an email to his staff, saying the company plans to shut down some non-core projects such as its Incubator and AI Labs. Further, the Wall Street Journal said Uber is reevaluating its money-losing freight and autonomous-driving businesses.