Uber's business is still growing despite months of bad news, scandals and turmoil
According to a report from Bloomberg, the company told investors during a 15-minute call on Tuesday that its gross bookings for rides were up 10% from the previous quarter. Uber's losses also narrowed during the time. It's not clear what the actual figures are.
The call was meant to soothe anxious investors after months of scandals have sent the $69 billion company into turmoil, culminating with CEO Travis Kalanick's resignation last month. Uber's long-time business chief Emil Michael was forced to resign last month. And Uber fired more than 20 employees as a result of an investigation into bad behavior in the workplace that includes sexual harassment.
The internal turmoil, along with a string of scandals that reportedly caused 200,000 users to delete their accounts earlier in the year, have put Uber's business in the spotlight. To judge by the recent results however, the problems have not taken a major toll on Uber's financial performance. Uber expects to hit over $8.25 billion in gross bookings - the total value of rides before Uber pays its drivers - in the last quarter, according to Bloomberg.
Uber also hinted on the call that a settlement with Waymo, Google's self-driving car spinout, could be on the horizon, although nothing is currently in the works. A jury trial in the trade theft lawsuit is scheduled for October.