Uber Technologies Inc Add to portfolio

Reflecting on seven years as the top technology executive at Uber, Thuan Pham divides his time there into three “tours of duty,” as he describes them. In a video call from his home in San Jose, California, Pham said he’s relieved to no longer be responsible for the technology that powered some 18 million trips a day before the pandemic. Pham’s path to chief technology officer at Uber reads like a Silicon Valley fairy tale. As a child, he escaped war-torn Vietnam in 1979 on a refugee boat with his mom and younger brother. Through booms and busts, he found his way to Silicon Graphics, DoubleClick and VMware Inc. before Kalanick came calling. When Pham joined Uber in 2013, the company was doing 30,000 rides a day and quickly outgrowing its technical capacity, resulting frequent system crashes.

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Uber UK launches Work Hub for drivers to find other gig jobs during COVID-19. The Work Hub sits within the Uber driver app and displays offers of work from third party providers -- including jobs that involve using a car to make deliveries -- offering alternative gigs to drivers whose earnings have been affected by weak demand for ride-hailing during the COVID-19 pandemic. From today, Uber said U.K. drivers can access "thousands" of "temporary job postings" and "flexible earning opportunities" with other companies -- initially delivery firms Hermes and Yodel. Uber will need its pool of drivers to be there still, owning a car and available for gig work, when normalcy returns if it's ride-hailing business is to bounce back. Aside from the U.S. and the U.K., other markets where Uber has already launched the Work Hub for drivers are Australia, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Portugal and South Africa. While the feature has been born in a crisis, Uber had already made moves into the broader temp work space -- launching a shift finder app, called Uber Works, in Chicago last year. And the company told us it sees longer-term opportunity for the Work Hub as a vehicle to broaden the type of earning opportunities it can put in front of drivers, saying the initiative will continue to evolve.

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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) announced today that Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, will participate in a keynote at the Bank of America Securities Global Technology Conference on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. Mr. Khosrowshahi is scheduled to appear at 11:30 am PT (2:30 pm ET). A live webcast of the event will be available on the investor relations section of the Uber website at http://investor.uber.com. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button?

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In their Wednesday letter, Klobuchar, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) requested that the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission “closely monitor” talks of a deal between the two food delivery companies. If they reach an agreement, the senators are asking that the government “initiate an investigation.”. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Uber made an offer to buy Grubhub and that a deal could be reached as early as June. Uber operates its own food delivery service, Uber Eats, which directly competes with Grubhub. If the two companies merged, their combined sales transactions would place them at a 45 percent hold on the app delivery market, according to Edison Trends. Still, talks continue and a deal has not been reached. If a deal is announced, regulators like the Justice Department and FTC would have to sign off on it. While Uber’s latest earnings report trailed by $2.9 billion from the previous year, its Uber Eats division went up over 54 percent year over year, largely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and increased demand for food delivery.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS / AP) — Uber has cut 3,000 jobs from its workforce, its second major wave of layoffs in two weeks as the coronavirus slashed demand for rides. Uber will be re-focusing on its core business, moving people and delivering food and groceries, said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, in a note to employees. The company is closing its Incubator and AI Labs and will pursue strategic alternatives for its job recruiting app, Uber Works, Khosrowshahi said. “Our balance sheet is strong, Eats is doing great, Rides looks a little better, maybe we can wait this damn virus out…I wanted there to be a different answer…but there simply was no good news to hear.”.

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Fake Uber, Twitter IPO Investor Admits $18 Million Fraud Scheme. Fred Elm, 51, the founder of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Elm Tree Investment Advisers, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud charges in Manhattan federal court on Friday, agreeing to forfeit more than $8.3 million. According to their 2016 indictment, Elm, also known as Frederic Elmaleh, and Elm Tree executive Ahmad Naqvi lured investors by claiming they had contacts at tech venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital who could give them access to pre-IPO shares. Along with Uber and Twitter, Elm and Naqvi also touted their ability to get investors into in-demand companies like Alibaba Group Holdings Inc. and Square Inc. A large portion of the money they collected from more than 50 investors wound up going to personal spending by the two men.

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The potential deal would create a delivery megalith with market share well over 50% in major cities, but also represents a "new low in pandemic profiteering," as David Cicilline, a Republican congressman and head of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, put it. Getting the deal past his committee won't be easy, analysts warn, even as they cheer on the potential bolstering of Uber's delivery arm that's come front and center in recent months. Davidson, said in a note to clients, "given the impact any deal could have on a restaurant industry that is struggling to survive in the face of the pandemic." And as Uber deals with other regulatory issues in California, which recently filed a lawsuit accusing it and Lyft of misclassifying of drivers, increased scrutiny increases overall deal risk for Uber, he said. The two companies are now considering a deal that give GrubHub shareholders 1.9 Uber shares for every one they currently own — down from 2.5 in prior days — valuing the company around $60 per share, the paper reported.

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Given the current world climate, Chipotle and Uber Eats are working together to make the delivery experience easier for fans. Uber Eats users can leave a note in the app for "no-contact" deliveries, which involve a driver leaving the food at the doorstep rather than an in-person exchange. "We could not be more excited to finally deliver delicious Chipotle burritos, bowls, and sides to customers within the comfort of their own homes here in Canada . We know that adding Chipotle to our current offerings will bring joy to our eaters with the tap of a button." Digital sales grew 80.8% in first quarter of 2020 compared to the prior year, and to accommodate the increase in digital and delivery, Chipotle is installing new in-restaurant features to increase convenience for customers and delivery partners.

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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The possibility that Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N), which runs Uber Eats, could acquire Grubhub Inc (GRUB.N) is reigniting some restaurants' worries over the commissions charged to eateries by the third-party delivery companies. Uber is in negotiations to buy Grubhub Inc (GRUB.N) in an all-stock deal, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Some small eateries have been vocal about their distaste for the services, which sometimes charge mom and pop restaurants - already operating on thin margins - as much as 15% to 30% commissions on each order while giving discounts breaks to marquee chains like McDonald's Corp (MCD.N). In March and April, as the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, Grubhub added as many new partner restaurants to its platform as it did during the entire second half of 2019, Chief Executive Officer Matt Maloney said last week in a letter to shareholders. The rules would expire 90 days after a state of emergency is lifted and will limit fees paid by restaurants to 15% of an order for delivery services and 5% for non-delivery services like marketing.

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The companies are considering a deal that would value Grubhub stock at around 1.9 Uber shares, or just over $60 per Grubhub share based on trading Wednesday afternoon, the people said. Grubhub... Uber Technologies Inc. and Grubhub Inc. are discussing a takeover valuing Grubhub at roughly $6 billion, with big cost savings that would help pay for the deal, according to people familiar with the matter. House Democrats release a $3 trillion bill to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, Uber considers a takeover of Grubhub, and many university students in California won’t be on campus in fall. Encouraging Uber and Grubhub to strike a deal now is the potential for enormous cost savings, likely north of $300 million, the people said.

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