The Russell 1000’s transportation industry group is expected to see 19Q3 net income increase 4.5% from the prior year. Within the group the largest drag is the trucking sub-industry, which is expected to decline 55.2%. Ride sharing giants, and sub-industry constituents, Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) and Lyft Inc (LYFT.O) both beat net income expectations, but saw year-on-year (YoY) net income declines of 17.8% and 86% respectively. Analysts anticipate that Lyft will be the first to reach positive YoY net income in the first quarter of 2020.

Here’s more fuel for Uber’s profit bonfire. The ride-hailing company raised $2 billion from the junk bond market on Wednesday, borrowing more than it had originally planned even though it generates no earnings from which to pay interest. Investors are betting either that Uber chief Dara Khosrowshahi will drive the company to a profit – or at least, that his dash for growth will lure future investors who can pay them back. Uber, which was valued at $76 billion in its last round of funding in August, is growing at a prodigious rate. Net revenue, which takes out money paid

Uber may have barely started its journey, but it’s already focused on the destination. Bankers vying for a role as underwriter for a future initial public offering have advised the cash-burning car service that it may be worth up to $120 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal – nearly twice as much as its valuation in a recent funding round. It’s risky to start with a big number, and may call for imaginative views of the markets Uber can disrupt. Last quarter, Uber’s revenue was $2.8 billion, which is about 60 percent higher than the same period last year.

Saudi Arabia’s new advisory council could unravel quicker than Donald Trump’s. The U.S. president’s strategic and manufacturing panels, stocked with chief executives from companies like Blackstone, 3M, General Electric and Merck, lasted six months before being wound up in August 2017. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 18-member group of foreign experts, brought in to advise on new super-city NEOM, may have an even shorter shelf life.Advising presidents and princes – or both in the case of ex-Uber boss Travis Kalanick – has two benefits. It flatters the ego of the bigwig who’s asked by serving as a kind of

Much of the stock market’s recent boom resided in an acronym: FAANG, for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, aka Alphabet. As important as they’ve become, investors tired of this trade can look forward in 2018 to a new set of letters to jumble into a more exciting investment thesis. Call it SLAW. Four of the most highly valued private companies – Spotify, Lyft, Airbnb and WeWork – are in various stages of preparing to go public. Although none may ever match the scale of a FAANG or a BAT – as China’s Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are known –

Uber’s early backers are on a collision course with their own greed. Japan’s SoftBank and allied investors want to buy roughly one-sixth of the bumptious ride-hailing firm. Existing owners can sell at a $48 billion valuation, or about 30 percent below the last one. Even with a markdown, they could make many times their money. The promise of more, however risky, will cloud the thinking. Consider just one of the many rounds of funds raised under now-deposed co-founder Travis Kalanick. A so-called Series B investment in 2011 judged Uber to be worth $300 million before an injection of $37 million of

Flying cars are performing some impressive stunts. Chinese automaker Geely and U.S. ride-sharing company Uber have just joined a growing list of high-powered backers of the futuristic transport. The deals may generate buzz, but they shouldn’t distract investors from real challenges these companies face in the present. Long a staple of science fiction movies like “Blade Runner”, aerial driving has become a running joke, a symbol of good things that can never come to pass. “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” Facebook venture capitalist Peter Thiel lamented of Twitter. They have taken a more serious turn of

An initial public offering for Lyft would amplify Uber’s troubles. The ride-hailing firm is readying to go public as early as next year, Reuters reports. It would be an opportunistic way for the company, which was valued at $7.5 billion in its last funding round, to capitalize on its larger rival’s self-inflicted damage. Fresh capital for the second U.S. player would merely compound the frontrunner’s injuries. A little over a year ago, Lyft was mulling a sale. The company lagged far behind Uber in drivers, passengers and money raised – and was receding quickly into the rear-view mirror. Uber had

Take the money and run is the new Uber Benchmark. The ride-hailing firm, valued at nearly $70 billion in its most recent funding round, is beset by multiple controversies, managerial turmoil and huge losses. Early investor Benchmark may be loath to give in to demands to sell its 13 percent stake. But it would help restore some stability and let the venture-capital firm rake in billions. Benchmark, which led Uber’s series A funding round in early 2011, has injected nearly $30 million into the company, according to fellow shareholders. Now, though, it has turned to the courts to try to

If only there was an Uber for analyzing tech unicorns. Bank regulators have expressed displeasure over how Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other advisers pitched a loan for the $70 billion ride-hailing enterprise. Imaginative slicing and dicing of figures is an irksome dark art performed by investment bankers. At the same time, the Federal Reserve’s guidance on leverage can be hard to apply to unprofitable ventures. Silicon Valley’s widespread use of numbers that stray from standard accounting practices is finally getting more intense scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Separately, the Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of