Uber is cutting 400 people in its marketing unit. Call that the heat from markets. Yes, being a publicly traded company over being a private one. Uber will now be measured not by hype but by numbers it is bringing in the business. I still maintain that Uber and Lyft will merge. If Lyft does not join Uber, a consortium of car companies will acquire it to deploy their vehicles in the redesigning transportation sector. That decision will come because profitability for these firms will take longer and markets cannot wait on just promises.
The ride-hailing company will dismiss about 400 employees, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO, told employees of the changes in an email Monday.
“Today, there’s a general sense that while we’ve grown fast, we’ve slowed down,” Khosrowshahi wrote in the email reviewed by Bloomberg. “This happens naturally as companies get bigger, but it is something we need to address, and quickly.”
Uber market cap is $71.5 billion, well below the rumored excess of $100 billion it raised money in its last private round.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Uber has opened itself up to more vulnerabilities by going public, the dream and vision killers…
All the beautiful lines about long-term vision and strategic direction are reduced to what the numbers say per quarter, with speculators and short sellers helping to fundamentally change company’s original purpose.
And now the poor marketers are the first to bear the brunt. Capitalism is great, so also its defects.
The steamroller continues…
Yes – it is now a quarterly game and Uber has the heat to deal with. Cutting 400 marketers is just the beginning
Going public has pros and cons. Like fate, we can’t forsee it to know if we make or break even as much as we prepare for it.
If Lyft is bought over by car companies, what might you predict to be the outcome of the change? Will it be a sustainable game changer?
“If Lyft is bought over by car companies, what might you predict to be the outcome of the change? Will it be a sustainable game changer?” If people are not buying cars because of ride-hailing, they need a channel to keep the trade going. Lyft can do that.