Toro's founders started at Uber helping monitor the data quality in the company's vast data catalogs, and they wanted to put that experience to work for a more general audience. The round was co-led by Costanoa Ventures and Point72 Ventures, with help from a number of individual investors. Company co-founder and CEO Kyle Kirwan says the startup wanted to bring to data the kind of automated monitoring we have in applications performance monitoring products.
The proposition would rollback the law known as AB5, which was targeted at forcing ride-sharing and food-delivery companies to classify their drivers as employees rather than contractors.
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund is planning deep cuts in staffing after reporting about $18 billion in losses from the declining value of its startups, according to people familiar with the matter.The reductions could affect about 10% of the fund’s workforce of roughly 500, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel decisions. The Vision Fund’s headquarters are in London, with additional operations in Tokyo and California. The cuts will be across all levels of staff, said one person.A spokesman for the Vision Fund declined to comment.SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and his $100 billion Vision Fund changed the tech industry by handing out enormous checks to relatively unproven startups. But the fund went from SoftBank’s main profit contributor a year ago to its biggest drag on earnings. It lost 1.9 trillion yen ($17.7 billion) last fiscal year after writing down the value of investments, including WeWork and Uber Technologies Inc.Son originally said he hoped to raise a new Vision Fund every two to three years, but he has conceded he can’t attract money now because of the poor performance. The fund, led by Rajeev Misra, operates as a SoftBank affiliate with most of the money coming from limited partners, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co.“It makes sense that SoftBank is cutting positions at the Vision Fund as they are in an extremely difficult situation, and they may start targeting highly paid workers to cut costs,” said Koji Hirai, head of M&A advisory firm Kachitas Corp. in Tokyo.The Vision Fund grew rapidly after launch three years ago as Misra recruited scores of people from the finance industry, including many of his former colleagues from Deutsche Bank. Among its managing partners are several of the German bank’s ex-employees, including Colin Fan, former co-head of its investment banking division.The fund also set up an unusual compensation structure that includes a $5 billion loan to employees. The debt is swapped for equity in the fund and generates profit when deals make money -- and losses when they don’t, scaled by seniority, people familiar with the matter have said. The poor performance so far, along with the layoffs, may prompt some employees to look for other positions.“One side effect is that the best people at SoftBank may exit to find better funds,” said Hirai. “If so, their fund business may become even worse, sliding down from a slope.”The Vision Fund has struggled since WeWork botched its efforts to go public last year and SoftBank stepped in to bail the company out. The Vision Fund currently manages more than 80 portfolio companies, but Son expects about 15 of the fund’s startups will likely go bankrupt while predicting another 15 will thrive.“Vision Fund’s results are not something to be proud of,” Son said earlier this month as he announced record losses. “If the results are bad, you can’t raise money from investors. Things aren’t good, that’s why we are investing with our own money.”The fund has already unwound some investments, including selling a nearly 50% stake in dog-walking startup Wag Labs back to the company last year. Son has said he plans to sell off about $42 billion in assets to finance stock buybacks and pay down debt.SoftBank disclosed it’s unloading some shares in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and is in talks to sell about $20 billion of T-Mobile US Inc., Bloomberg News reported. It’s also exploring a deal for its minority stake in industrial software maker OSIsoft LLC that could be worth $1.5 billion.SoftBank shares, after plummeting in March, have recovered and are little changed for the year. The stock rose just more than 1% in Tokyo trading.One emerging question is how Alibaba -- SoftBank’s most valuable holding -- will be affected by the clash between the U.S. and China. A bill just approved by the U.S. Senate could force Chinese companies like Alibaba to stop trading their shares on U.S. exchanges.“The big picture is SoftBank is caught up with U.S.-China conflict right now, and SoftBank may need to conduct a drastic restructuring if Alibaba was delisted from New York,” said Hirai. “Its main banks and the capital markets are anxiously awaiting an outcome for the situation.”(Updates with additional details starting in the first paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
MoneyGram (MGI) partners with Uber to provide to drivers rebates amid the pandemic.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Alarmed at high fees, restaurant owners are demanding that delivery services such as Grubhub Inc. cut them a break during the pandemic. Unfortunately, politicians are listening.New York City imposed price controls on the apps this week, prohibiting them from charging delivery fees of more than 15%. San Francisco, Seattle and Washington have made similar interventions. Many other cities will be tempted to follow suit. They shouldn’t.Higher prices for delivery reflect rising demand in a period when most of the country is stuck at home. If restaurants find these fees too burdensome, they can hire their own delivery workers or switch to another app — and in New York City, there are at least a dozen, so there’s no lack of competition. It’s true that Grubhub and Uber Eats, two of the biggest delivery apps, are contemplating a merger. But it’s hard to argue that either has engaged in predatory pricing when neither makes any money. Uber Eats, in fact, is losing about $300 million a quarter.Which suggests a bigger problem with price caps. Although delivery apps have proved quite popular, no one has devised a decent business model for them. At the moment, they’re kept afloat thanks to lavish subsidies from investors. That means consumers get deliveries for much less than they’d otherwise have to pay, and restaurants, far from being scammed, are in fact paying significantly below what the market would demand absent such support.This may or may not be a good bet by investors, but in the meantime the arrangement creates substantial benefits. Restaurants can connect with a much larger customer base, offload the hassles of delivery and market themselves efficiently without having to add staff. Apps can compete for market share with attractive prices. And customers can choose from an astonishing variety of cuisines while having their orders dropped off for a relative pittance.Price controls won’t improve this model. To the contrary, they’ll induce apps to pass along the added costs to customers, thereby reducing demand for the very restaurants they’re intended to help, or to narrow their coverage areas to only the most profitable addresses. More customers will order food for pickup to avoid the fees, increasing the risk to public health. And investors may tire all the sooner of subsidizing loss-making services whose potential revenue is artificially capped.Rather than attempting to re-engineer the delivery economy, city governments should be laying the groundwork so that restaurants and other small businesses can safely reopen, while Congress should focus on getting direct aid to these companies, in particular by fixing some of the perverse incentives created by previous relief measures.The unfortunate fact is that restaurants are in for an extended period of turmoil. Policy makers should do all they can to help them out — and avoid adding to the damage along the way.Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s interest in acquiring a self-driving car pioneer is the prime example (pun intended) of how expectations for driverless vehicles have been recalibrated.The e-commerce giant is in advanced talks to buy Zoox Inc. for less than the $3.2 billion at which it was valued in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Given the California-based startup’s approach to autonomous cars, its fate is particularly instructive.In a very crowded field, Zoox was practically alone in aiming to build a whole new kind of electric-powered vehicle, and to operate the fleet itself. Peers such as Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, General Motors Co.’s Cruise unit, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG’s joint venture Argo AI, and Aurora Innovations Inc. have focused solely on developing the self-driving technology that could subsequently be fitted into vehicles.Zoox wanted to be Tesla Inc., Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc. all rolled into one.Back in 2015, that seemed like an attractive proposition. If the triple threat to the automotive industry was autonomous technology, electric drivetrains and ride-hailing, why not embrace all three? After all, there were expectations that by 2020 robotaxis would ferry you around the world’s metropolises. Capital flowed into self-driving car startups, typified by the $1 billion GM spent acquiring Cruise in 2016.Those dreams, needless to say, have failed to materialize. Companies that had aimed to jump straight to the fourth of five levels of autonomy have quietly downshifted. (The first level of self-driving encompasses driver-assistance functions such as cruise control, and the fifth is full automation.) Bloomberg New Energy Finance doesn’t expect vehicles with Level Four automation to start gaining traction until 2034. Even then, they will likely represent just 831,000 of the 95 million-unit global car market that year.What’s more, the expense of developing, building and operating a fleet of self-driving cars would be considerable. Even deep-pocketed Alphabet and GM have sought outside investment for their efforts. Established carmakers are meanwhile focusing their capital on electric cars, a more imminent threat. And owning and operating a fleet is expensive too. Zoox had a tough sell to investors: In 15 years’ time, it might have been an attractive business.Which brings us to Amazon. Even if robotaxis aren’t coming any time soon, there are alternative applications for autonomous technology that fall squarely in the Seattle-based firm’s wheelhouse, namely, logistics. Given Amazon’s shipping costs are set to hit $90 billion a year, tech from Zoox could help save $20 billion in shipping costs, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. Its solutions could be used across warehousing and distribution. Buying Zoox could take Amazon's other moves in this field — an existing investment in Aurora and experiments with self-driving truck specialist Embark and electric vanmaker Rivian — to a whole new level.Amazon has become the fantasy acquirer for any number of companies seeking a soft landing: theater chains, brick-and-mortar retailers, food deliverers, mobile carriers, real estate brokers, dental suppliers, film studios and plenty more besides.Sometimes, just sometimes, those deals make sense. Zoox is one of them.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The meal kit delivery company saw a strong jump in revenues in the recent quarter Continue reading...
What if Amazon.com decided to enter the ride-sharing market? Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak floated that idea in response to a report that Amazon is in “advanced talks:” to acquire Zoox, a company working on autonomous vehicles.
The Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC), an independent committee that promotes internet diversity and resilience through the formation of new global internet nexus points, today announced that Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) has joined as a founding member.
Economic impact payments would cover less than half of the average family’s monthly expenses, a new study found.
RESAAS Announces Integration with Uber
Vaya Africa, a ride-hail mobility venture founded by Zimbabwean mogul Strive Masiyiwa, has launched an electric taxi service and charging network in Zimbabwe with plans to expand across the continent. The South Africa headquartered company has acquired a fleet of Nissan Leaf EVs and developed its own solar powered charging stations. The program goes live in Zimbabwe this week, as Vaya finalizes partnerships to begin on-demand electric taxi and delivery services in markets that could include Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia.
Initial claims for U.S. jobless benefits rose by more than 2 million for the tenth straight week, but the drop in continued claims show some people are finding work, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Uber is cutting 25 per cent of its workforce in India as the US ride-hailing group grapples with severe strain from the coronavirus crisis in its biggest market in Asia. It comes as the technology company rethinks its position in Asia more broadly. Uber has been hard hit by India’s harsh coronavirus lockdown, during which all public transportation including taxis and private car-hailing services were suspended for weeks.
Food delivery company DoorDash will announce on Thursday a service to help restaurants build their own websites for online ordering so they do not have to pay marketing commissions to the platform itself. Restaurants will also not have to pay most fees for the new DoorDash Storefront service through the end of the year, providing some relief to a ravaged industry as it starts reopening in some areas, DoorDash Chief Operating Officer Christopher Payne told Reuters exclusively. Commissions as high as 30% paid to delivery companies - including Grubhub Inc, Postmates and Uber Technologies Inc's Uber Eats - are a sore spot for some cash-strapped mom-and-pop restaurants.
(Bloomberg) -- Ron Parise has spent about 50 hours a week for the last two years on the roads of Cape Coral, Florida, shuttling tourists and snowbirds between their rentals and the airport for Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. All that came to a sudden stop in late March, when the arrivals gates went quiet and Parise’s wife insisted he stay home to avoid exposing himself to the coronavirus.Parise, 73, used his newfound free time to apply for any public assistance program for which he thought he might qualify. Nothing came through until early this month, when he received $11,500. It’s a small-business loan forgivable under certain conditions, part of the $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to encourage companies to keep paying employees during the pandemic. Parise believes he qualifies because he owns a one-man business to support his job driving.The state of Florida initially told Parise he wasn’t eligible for unemployment insurance, but he recently began receiving checks under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which gives relief to independent contractors who have been impacted by the pandemic. This created an ethical dilemma for Parise, and perhaps a legal one, too. The small-business money is supposed to keep bosses like Parise from laying off workers— in this case, just Parise. Unemployment benefits are intended for people who have lost their jobs. “I don’t want to seem like I’m double dipping,” he said. “I’m happy to stay home and collect the government money if I can.” Parise said he hasn’t decided what to do but is leaning toward taking taking both and paying back the loan before it comes due in two years.While Uber considers its drivers to be independent contractors, some like Parise set up small businesses to manage their income from driving. The designation helps minimize personal and tax liabilities and for Parise, validates his status as an entrepreneur in his own right. “I’m more of an independent business person,” he said. “I hire Uber to send me customers.”Deciphering the rules around the government’s financial-assistance programs is a widespread challenge, and ride-hailing drivers face a particularly complicated route. The pandemic has left most of them unable to find enough work to get by. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft haven’t altered their stance that drivers are independent contractors, not employees, disqualifying them from unemployment insurance in most states. The companies have directed drivers toward at least three alternatives, including the two Parise applied for.Congress created Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to help provide financial relief to workers normally ineligible for unemployment benefits, and Uber successfully lobbied for its drivers to be included. States manage the federally funded program, and implementation has been patchy at best. Many drivers have yet to receive money or even confirmation they’ll get it eventually, said Harry Campbell, who runs a popular website for drivers called the Rideshare Guy. “Some people are getting unemployment,” he said. “Some aren’t.”The financial-aid programs for small businesses have been similarly inconsistent. Tied up in the practical questions of where drivers can turn for help is an unresolved fight over whether Uber and Lyft’s workers should be considered employees of the companies. Many drivers, along with labor groups and Democratic public officials, have said the companies are cheating drivers out of benefits and offloading the costs onto taxpayers. “They are using the moment to crystallize the fact that, in their view, these workers should not have the benefit of employee status,” said Brian Chen, a staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. Ride-hailing companies oppose efforts by drivers to access traditional unemployment benefits from states, which are financed through payroll taxes. Uber and Lyft are contesting a California law intended to classify workers like their drivers as employees, and the state recently sued them in response. Most drivers, said Chen, would receive more generous benefits from state programs, an assertion Uber contests. “Congress fully funded pandemic unemployment assistance for gig workers so that every state, many of which face historic deficits, could give these workers immediate financial support at no cost to their own state funds,” said Harry Hartfield, a spokesman for Uber.Lyft and Uber would have been on the hook for $413 million in unemployment insurance costs over the last five years in California alone, according to a study published this month by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for Research and Labor. A similar analysis by officials in New Jersey said Uber would have faced a bill of $530 million for unemployment and disability from 2014 to 2018. Tally up the 48 other states, and you’re looking at a significant additional cost for two companies that have never been profitable.“I don’t want to seem like I’m double dipping”New York courts have ruled multiple times in favor of Uber drivers seeking unemployment benefits in the last year, but only after a lengthy process that’s onerous for both applicants and the state, said Nicole Salk, a senior staff attorney with Legal Services NYC who has represented several drivers in such cases. “It causes problems for the whole system.” she said.On Monday, four drivers for Uber and Lyft and a worker advocacy group sued Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York Labor Department in federal court, claiming the state failed to pay unemployment benefits promptly. Jack Sterne, a spokesman for the governor, said New York is ahead of other states in its response to the jobs crisis and is processing more than 100,000 applications a week for the federal unemployment program. “During this pandemic emergency, we have been moving heaven and earth to get every single unemployed New Yorker their benefits as quickly as possible—including Uber and Lyft drivers who are treated no different than any other worker,” Sterne wrote in an emailed statement.Amara Sanogo, a driver in the Bronx, is living off his credit cards and helping his three children with their Zoom video curriculum as he waits for a response from the state about whether he qualifies for benefits. When he applied nearly two months ago, Sanogo set up an online account on a state website and was told he’d get updates there. “Every day I check that account,” he said. “There are no more messages.” New York’s Labor Department is now advising gig economy workers to apply to the federal program instead of the state’s.For drivers who set up a business to manage their Uber income, there are signs of significant interest in the small-business programs. Ron Walter, a driver in the Denver area who primarily works for Uber and Grubhub Inc., wrote a blog post about his experience applying for a PPP loan, which companies don’t need to pay back as long as they keep paying employees and adhere to other guidelines. Walter’s blog post contained a link encouraging other drivers to apply through a website called Womply.com, which charges lenders a commission for sending them leads. Dozens of drivers clicked through the link and filled out applications, according to data Walter received from Womply that was reviewed by Bloomberg.Walter got a loan of $4,800 and anticipates he’ll have to pay it back. He didn’t apply for other government programs, he said, because it didn’t feel right. Since Walter mostly delivers food, he said he’s actually doing pretty well. He can squeeze more deliveries into every hour and gets paid more. “Traffic is a lot better, and parking is a lot better because everybody is staying home,” he said. But as the economy worsens, Walter worries demand is not going to last. At some point, he said, “people run out of money.”(Updates with lawsuit in the 12th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Guru releases portfolio for the 1st quarter Continue reading...
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 rose above 100,500 on Thursday, one day after it exceeded the 100,000 level, a grim marker for the nation with the highest number of cases and deaths in the world.
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought out some creative accounting at companies, as executives attempt to gauge the impact of the pandemic on their businesses and how they would have performed if the crisis hadn’t all but shut the economy down.
Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) has entered into a partnership agreement with MoneyGram International (MGI), which will provide drivers and delivery couriers with a discount on online money transfers.Shares in MoneyGram surged 10% to $2.12 on the news as of Tuesday’s close. Under the terms of the partnership, all workers on Uber's platform, including the Driver app, Uber Eats, Uber Freight and Uber Works, are eligible for the discount on money transfers sent to family and friends in over 200 countries. The partnership has now been rolled out in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K."The spread of COVID-19 has been hard for everyone, and it has been particularly challenging for people who drive and deliver with companies like ours,” said an Uber spokesperson. “To help those who are supporting loved ones abroad during these uncertain times, we're excited to partner with MoneyGram."Shares in Uber declined 0.7% to $34.56 after the ride-hailing company’s stock value more than doubled over the past two months.Turning now to the outlook on the Street, the majority of analysts remain bullish on Uber stock as the company announced $1 billion in cost-cutting measures and is also focusing on ramping up its food delivery business. The demand for the service has been offsetting weak rides demand during the coronavirus pandemic.The strategy move gave five-star analyst Rod Lache at Wolfe Research on Monday enough reason for raising the stock to Buy from Hold and ramping up the price target to $41 from $36.The analyst now believes that Covid-19 has pulled forward both growth in the Eats delivery segment and a necessary re-sizing of the cost structure, which has “meaningfully de-risked expectations for rides growth”.TipRanks data shows that Uber stock boasts 27 Buys, 3 Holds and 1 Sell that add up to a Strong Buy consensus. The $39.56 average price target implies shares have room to rise another 15% in the coming 12 months. (See Uber’s stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Uber’s Latest Takeover Offer Said To be Rejected By GrubHub Weight Watchers Fires Thousands Over Zoom Facebook Workplace Hits 5 Million Paid Users As Remote Work Demand Rises More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * AutoZone Surprises with Business as Usual Quarter * Logitech Shares Lifted In Pre-Market On Share Buyback Plan, 10% Dividend Boost * Billionaire Ackman Exits Berkshire Hathaway, Blackstone To Fund Opportunities * HBO Max Launches, But Not Yet Available on Amazon, Roku Platforms