[redsparrow]

In the linked transcript Doctorow suggests that Uber's profits come from selling off divisions. "I’m finally curing my starvation by eating my own arms" is the rather colourful metaphor he uses. Does that line up with the 2021Q3 profit you mention, or maybe he's talking about something that happened earlier?

[lhorie]

There were some boosts to some numbers in some quarter from sale of divisions (the self-driving division acquisition by Aurora being one of the bigger one) yes, and there were also some boosts from pulling out of some markets (e.g. the Grab deal) but conversely, the timing of the Didi stake write-off in Q3 also put a negative dent in the metrics for that quarter. IMHO, those are purely paper equity numbers and don't represent the state of core operations at all. The implication to bottom line, though, is that these division were bleeding cash and the path to positive ROI was dubious, so they had to go. If you're gonna go w/ an arm-eating metaphor, I think an appendicitis might be a closer metaphor to the real story.

Regardless of equity-related stuff, the Q3 report did specifically state that the rides division were in the green for the first time ever (on adjusted ebitda basis), with eats posting a near-break-even loss. The point isn't so much about where exactly the "green" line stands (whether it's adjusted ebitda basis, regular ebitda basis or GAP), but that the data points have been going up (and rather aggressively, according to some). This is supposed to suggest that operations are no longer bleeding cash mindlessly and actually working towards optimizing expenses etc.

[redsparrow]

Interesting, thanks for the detailed response. It's fun to listen to Doctorow talk trash but a lot of details get lost in the process.

It will be interesting to see what Uber can do with the position they're in.