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Uber's losses are widening again

Illustration: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

Uber is once again losing money, after turning a first quarter profit thanks to the sales of its Russia and Southeast Asia units.

Why it matters: Uber plans to go public by the end of 2019, but continues to balance its desire for profitability with increased investment in areas like food delivery business, bike-share and self-driving.

Top line: $2.7 billion in net revenue for Q2, up 49% from a year ago and a 10% increase from the previous quarter (excluding Russia and Southeast Asia), according to documents provided by the company.

  • Gross bookings, which include driver earnings, hit $12 billion. That's up 38% from a year ago, and over 6% from Q1.

Bottom line: $891 million loss on a GAAP basis. That's a big drop from nearly $2.5 billion in Q1 profits, but better than the $1.1 billion loss from Q4 2017.

  • Adjusted EBITDA loss (Uber’s preferred metric) was $614 million, which is slightly better than $645 million during the year-earlier period. The pro forma adjusted EBITDA loss climbed from $304 million in Q1 to $404 million in Q2.
  • Uber increased its spend in areas like marketing and R&D, but its largest bump was in the "general and administrative" bucket, which includes reserves for potential legal settlements and impairment charges from winding down its car leasing units.

Balance sheet: $5.7 billion of cash and $4.7 billion of long-term debt, as of June 30, 2018. Overall assets are listed at $21.1 billion, and overall liabilities at $14.2 billion.

Drivers made $8.23 billion during the second quarter, plus received another $427 million in incentives and miscellaneous payments.

Uber