Original post:
Good Queen Izabella, apparently enjoying the perks of position - bon bons and fan boys (bois? [moi et++]) has delegated to Jamie Powell—henceforth, the champion— the task of calling out* the financial news interloper.
From FT Alphaville:
A delirious defence of Uber
Uber Technologies, a $62.5bn minicab company, had a bad second quarter -- registering a loss of $5bn. Izzy, in her inimitable style, compared it to the artist Simon Denny’s bitcoin installation which literally burnt your cash for you.BI apparently thinks their readers are idiots. My only quibble with the Alphaville piece was that the champion pulled his punches.
However according to an opinion piece in Business Insider, the results are nothing to worry about:
Uber stock dipped 8% last week after the company recorded a larger than expected net loss, of $5.2 billion. It added to the impression that Uber is simply burning cash, subsidising cheap taxi rides to grab market share, with no real idea of how to turn itself into a sustainable, profitable business.OK, Alphaville is intrigued. A paper loss you say? Well, technically, most losses have some paper component. Line items like depreciation, amortisation and stock-based compensation, for instance, are paper costs but not cash costs. But they’re still counted because, well, the costs represent a transfer of value from the assets owned by the company, and therefore shareholders, to another entity, like an employee or supplier.
"I think that there's a meme around which is, can Uber ever be profitable? I certainly heard that that meme along with others," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told analysts on the earnings call last week.
In fact, Uber didn't lose any money at all. It is more likely the case that some investors misunderstood the nature of the loss: It was a paper write-off, not an actual loss of cash.
But anyway, do continue:...MORE
*Champion,
one who fights in behalf of another. During the Middle Ages a feature of Anglo-Norman law was trial by battle, a procedure in which guilt or innocence was decided by a test of arms. Clergy, children, women, and persons disabled by age or infirmity had the right to nominate champions to fight by proxy.
The King’s Champion (campio regis) is an office peculiar to England and dates there probably from the 14th century. Originally the champion’s function was to ride, clad in full armour, into Westminster Hall during the coronation banquet. Flanked by the high constable and the earl marshal, he threw down the gauntlet three times, challenging to mortal combat any who would dispute the king’s right to reign. There is no record that the challenge was ever accepted....
—Britannica
UPDATE—Business Insider: "Uber's stock just hit a new record low after last week's disastrous earnings report"
