Uber has booked massive full-year losses, a technology site has reported. The company is struggling to recover from a series of scandals, as well as increased regulation by state and municipal authorities.Ride-hailing company Uber lost $4.5 billion (€3.64 billion) last year, technology site The Information reported late Tuesday. The annual loss was much bigger than the $2.8 billion in the red in 2016.
It was a difficult year for the San Francisco-based firm. Former CEO Travis Kalanick was forced to step down in June amid a shareholder revolt that followed a series of scandals.
In September, Uber was told that it would lose its operating license in London. In addition, the company last month disclosed that it had suffered a massive data breach affecting 57 million users.
Fighting on many fronts
The European Union’s top court dealt a major setback to Uber’s plans for expansion across the Continent when it ruled that EU nations could regulate it as a taxi company.
Last Friday, Uber settled a lawsuit brought by Google, which accused it of stealing its technology and infringing its patents. Uber agreed to pay $245 million worth of its own shares to Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving vehicle unit to settle the legal dispute.
There was one silver lining for the ride-hailing company, though, as it was able to show improvement in its fourth quarter by narrowing its loss to $1.1 billion after losing $1.46 billion in the previous three months.
Fourth-quarter bookings rose by 14 percent to $11.1 billion.
hg/aos (dpa, Reuters)
