It’s about time! By a narrow margin of $8m, Uber (UBER) reported its first-ever adjusted EBITDA quarterly profit last week since it went public in 2019.
EBITDA stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.” Companies have all sorts of different idiosyncratic expenses (i.e. non-recurring, irregular, one-time) that are unique to them — so, adjusted EBITDA is a formula that factors these types of expenses out of the earnings equation. The resulting figure offers a way to compare different companies in the same industry on an apples-to-apples basis.
Uber reported quarterly revenue of $4.8b, beating analyst expectations of $4.41b and marking a quarter-over-quarter increase of 28% and a year-over-year increase of 72%. The revenue beat was driven by a record level of gross bookings for the quarter.
Why it matters
While an $8m quarterly profit is a slim margin for a company the size of Uber, it marks a significant turning point for investors. In the words of CFO Nelson Chai, "reaching total-company adjusted-EBITDA profitability is an important milestone for Uber.”
