Uber裁撤350个岗位——三个月内的第三轮

在巨亏的压力下，为了运营好公司，Uber选择裁撤350个工作岗位——这是三个月内的第三轮裁员。

首席执行官达拉·科斯罗萨西在周一写邮件告诉员工们，这些动作是公司重构的一部分，是为了“确保合适的人”在“合适的岗位上”——这与他给前两次裁员的解释类似。

“像今天这样的日子，对大家都不容易，执行管理团队和我本人，将尽可能地确保我们以后不需要这么做。”他说。

这几轮裁员涉及Uber的无人驾驶部门、食品配送服务、市场部、招聘部与核心的共享汽车业务。

今年7月，作为公司重构计划的一部分，Uber裁撤了其市场部的400名员工。两个月后，公司裁了工程部和产品团队中的435人，然后有了如今这次。

今年6月，Uber称公司有接近27000名员工。

最近的一轮裁员，在时间上与Uber的投资人削减巨额亏损的压力相吻合。自从5月上市后，Uber报出了数十亿美元的亏损。今年第二季度，公司称亏损了52.4亿美元，这包括与上市相关的一次性成本。

公司第三季度的收入报告将在11月4日公布。

“这是另一种迹象，显示Uber受到的削减成本和减少战略性动议的压力。”Wedbush证券的分析师丹·埃夫斯说，“达拉和他的团队怕是要忙不过来，因为很显然，Uber的近期增长并不支持这类扩大化的成本重构。”

“一家公司在上市后持续举步维艰，这是有麻烦的信号。”

上市以来，Uber的股价已经跌掉24%，至每股31.44美元。

股价的下滑，以及近期的多次裁员，对公司来说是非常负面的。Uber曾经是科技界的宠儿，但现在成了让人警惕的反面教材，因为投资者会重新考虑，还要不要在亏钱的科技公司中大笔投钱。

埃夫斯说，这可能不会是Uber的最后一次裁员，因为Uber要改善财务状况还需做得更多。但D.A. Davison的分析师汤姆·怀特认为，针对市场部门的裁员实际上可能是个积极的信号。它意味着美国市场竞争的缓和，或者说Uber已经达到了较高层次的国内消费者认知度。

他说：“听起来，这应该是今年裁员三部曲的最后一步。”

Uber一直试图在市场上重新自我定义为“你日常生活的操作系统”。上个月，Uber举办了一个活动，推出了融合Uber Eats、自行车和踏板车、公共交通以及其核心的共享汽车的一款应用。Uber还推广了货运业务，并称很快会建芝加哥总部。

几周前，Uber还首推了Uber Works的应用软件，让打零工者与临时工作配对——不过时间点很别扭，因为公司正在对抗一项加州法案，该法案可能把Uber的驾驶员归为全职员工。本周初，Uber还宣布了收购Cornershop大部分股权的计划，这是一家在线的生鲜食品供应商，开在智利、墨西哥、秘鲁和多伦多。Uber的领导层此前曾经建议，公司应该考虑进入生鲜递送服务业务。（财富中文网）

译者：宣峰

Under pressure to rein in its huge losses, Uber has cut 350 jobs—its third round of job cuts in just three months.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees in an email on Monday that the changes are part of a restructuring that’s aiming to “ensure the right people” are in the “right roles”—a similar explanation he’s given for the previous two cuts.

“Days like today are tough for us all, and the [executive leadership team] and I will do everything we can to make certain that we won’t need or have another day like this ahead of us,” he said.

The job cuts impact Uber’s self-driving unit, food delivery service, marketing, recruiting, and its core ride-hailing business.

The news comes after Uber cut 400 employees from its marketing department in July as part of a restructuring. Two months later, the company laid off 435 people from its engineering and product teams.

In June, Uber said it had nearly 27,000 employees.

The latest round of layoffs also coincides with increasing pressure by investors on Uber to reduce its massive losses. The company has reported billion-dollar deficits since its initial public offering in May. During its second quarter, the company said it lost $5.24 billion, which included one-time costs associated with the IPO.

The company is scheduled to report its third quarter earnings on Nov. 4.

“This is another indicator of the pressure Uber is getting around cost cutting and reducing its strategic initiatives,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Dara and his team have their hands full as clearly Uber’s near-term growth is not supporting this bloated cost structure.

“It’s a troubling sign for a company that continues to stumble since their IPO.”

Since that IPO, Uber’s stock has dropped 24% to $31.44.

That decline, coupled with the recent string of layoffs, is a huge reversal for the company. Once a tech darling, it has since become a cautionary tale as investors rethink their appetite for plowing their money into money-losing tech firms.

Ives said this likely isn’t the last round of layoffs for Uber, which still has a lot of work to do to improve its financials. But Tom White, analyst for D.A. Davidson, said that the layoffs affecting the marketing division may actually be a positive sign. It could be a sign of tempering U.S. competition or that Uber has already achieved a high level of domestic consumer awareness.

It “sounds like this is final step of three-phases of layoffs this year,” he said.

Uber has been trying to remarket itself as “the operating system for your everyday life.” Last month, the company hosted an event in which it touted the integration of Uber Eats, bikes and scooters, public transportation, and its core ride-hailing app. It also boasted its Uber Freight business, which will soon have its own Chicago headquarters.

A couple of weeks ago, Uber also debuted its Uber Works app to match gig workers with temporary jobs—odd timing, given that the company is currently fighting a California bill that may reclassify some its drivers as full-time employees. And earlier this week, Uber announced plans to acquire a majority stake in Cornershop, an online grocery provider in Chile, Mexico, Peru and Toronto. Uber’s leadership had previously suggested that the company was considering getting into the grocery delivery service business.