By Preetika Rana 

Uber Technologies Inc. posted another big loss as the coronavirus pandemic continued to batter its core-ride sharing business, though its shares rose for a second straight day in part because of a key regulatory win in California.

Gross bookings for Uber's rides declined 53% year-over-year in the three months ended Sept. 30, the San Francisco-based company said Thursday. That was better than the previous quarter, when rides were down 75%.

Food-delivery has been Uber's lifeline during the pandemic. Eats bookings more than doubled year-over-year and advanced 23% over the previous quarter. But the uptick wasn't enough to offset the 10% decline in overall bookings and 18% drop in revenue to $3.13 billion.

Net loss for the period narrowed to $1.09 billion compared with $1.16 billion a year ago, largely on the back of aggressive cost cuts this year. Uber shed roughly a quarter of its staff during the pandemic.

In February, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi vowed to make Uber profitable on an adjusted basis before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization before the end of the year. As the health crisis deepened, however, he pushed reaching that milestone to the end of next year. The company reiterated its profitability target on Thursday.

Uber's adjusted loss excluding those items widened to $625 million for the third quarter from a loss of $585 million in the same period a year ago.

The results were in line with Wall Street's already muted expectations. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast on average a net loss of $1.01 billion and adjusted Ebitda loss of $600 million.

Earlier this week, Uber won one of its biggest regulatory battles. The ride-sharing giant combined forces with companies including Lyft Inc. and DoorDash Inc. to mount California's costliest ballot-measure, which asked voters to exempt them from a state law seeking to reclassify their drivers as employees. Voters overwhelmingly supported the measure.

The reclassification would have upended Uber's operations in its home state and set a precedent for other states challenging its business model.

Write to Preetika Rana at preetika.rana@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 05, 2020 16:20 ET (21:20 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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