Heads have begun to roll, as the shockwaves of coronavirus have started to spread out, all across the world.
As per reports coming in, Uber can fire 5400 employees globally, as 20% of their workforce can be axed amidst economic mayhem resulting out of coronavirus.
There are 27,000 employees working for Uber, across the globe.
Uber CTO Resigns
Thuam Pham, the long time Uber loyalist, and current CTO has resigned. As per the reports, Pham took this extreme measure as 800 employees under him were fired.
He took the moral responsibility of this bloodbath.
He had joined Uber in 2013.
Uber Business Down By 80%
Globally, Uber’s cab hailing business is down by 80%, compared to the last quarter. This is unprecedented in Uber or any company’s financial history. As if a money churning machine has come to a grinding halt.
The decision to fire 20% of their employees, out of which around 45% are technical experts and coders, designers has mainly resulted to this extreme downfall in business.
Recently, Uber scrapped their 2020 Vision and financial guidance, as they admitted that due to coronavirus, they cannot predict anything.
They had also taken a $2 billion writeoff on the first-quarter investments.
But Uber CEO Is Confident
Last month, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had declared that even if Uber’s global business is down by 80% for the rest of the year, they will sail through the slump, and even after deducting all expenses, they will have $4 billion in cash reserve.
Overall, as per Dara, Uber has $10 billion of cash reserve.
He had said, “We are very fortunate to have a strong cash position with about $10 billion of unrestricted cash as of end of February. In any crisis, liquidity is key.”
Despite the news of firing 5400 employees, and Uber CTO stepping down, share prices of Uber remained stable around $30.
This clearly means that Uber investors are satisfied, as of now.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.