UBER Uber Technologies Inc

By Preetika Rana 

Uber Technologies Inc. posted a narrower annual loss on the back of its food-delivery business and aggressive cost cuts, even as the coronavirus pandemic crushed its core ride-hailing operations.

The San Francisco-based company on Wednesday reported a net loss of $6.76 billion for 2020, compared with a loss of $8.5 billion the year before. While widespread shelter-in-place orders crippled Uber's rides business, food delivery thrived as the same health mandates kept people from going to restaurants. Revenue for the year declined 14% to $11.13 billion.

Uber overhauled its business during the health crisis, cutting about a quarter of its staff and shedding noncore businesses, among other moves, leading to $1 billion in savings on fixed expenses last year. Meanwhile, the company doubled down on delivery, buying small food-delivery rival Postmates Inc. last year and ferrying new items such as groceries and medicines.

Uber's delivery bookings in the fourth quarter increased more than twofold from year-earlier levels. However, rides bookings halved. That downturn was broadly in line with ride-share rival Lyft Inc., whose fourth-quarter revenue declined 44%.

Overall, Uber's fourth-quarter revenue fell 16% to $3.16 billion. The net loss for the period narrowed to $968 million, from $1.09 billion in the year-earlier quarter. The latest results were slightly below Wall Street's expectations.

But Uber's adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization beat analysts' projections. Like Lyft, Uber has said it expects to become profitable by that measure by year-end -- a goal executives reiterated on a conference call with analysts Wednesday.

Uber posted an adjusted Ebitda loss of $454 million for the fourth quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $615 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had predicted on average a loss of $507 million on that basis in the latest period.

Food delivery, an expensive logistical undertaking, has typically been a drag on Uber's bottom line. But Uber trimmed its adjusted Ebitda loss from delivery to $145 million in the fourth quarter, from $461 million a year earlier, marking the unit's best three-month performance.

Uber's shares are up more than 80% from early November, benefiting from a big regulatory win in the company's home state and, more recently, from Covid-19 vaccine distribution. Shares were down about 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2021 18:35 ET (23:35 GMT)

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