SAN FRANCISCO– Uber on Thursday laid off approximately 185 individuals from its Postmates department, or about 15 percent of Postmates’ overall labor force, stated 3 individuals with understanding of the actions, as the ride-hailing huge combines its food shipment operations to weather the pandemic.
The majority of the executive group at Postmates, consisting of Bastian Lehmann, the creator and president of the popular food shipment app, will leave the business, stated individuals, who spoke on condition they not be called since they were not licensed to speak openly. Uber purchased Postmates in 2015 for $2.65 billion.
Some Postmates vice presidents and other executives will entrust to multimillion dollar exit bundles, individuals stated. Some staff members might likewise see minimized payment bundles, individuals stated, while others will be asked to leave or serve out completion of their agreement positions, which might result in more exits in coming months.
The cuts become part of a bigger combination of Uber’s food shipment department, Uber Consumes, with Postmates. While the Postmates brand name and app will stay different, much of the behind-the-scenes facilities will be blended with Uber Consumes and supported by Uber Consumes staff members. Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty, the worldwide head of Uber Consumes, will continue running the combined food shipment service, individuals stated.
An Uber representative, Matt Kallman, verified the cuts. “We are so grateful for the contributions of every Postmates employee,” Mr. Kallman stated. “While we are enjoyed formally invite much of them to Uber, we are sorry to bid farewell to others. We are so thrilled to continue to construct on top of the unbelievable work this amazing group has actually currently achieved.”
Food shipment has actually been vital to Uber as its ride-hailing service has actually been significantly deteriorated by the pandemic’s results on travel. Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s president, has actually indicated food shipment as a brilliant area; in 2015, Uber Consumes’ earnings surpassed the earnings from the ride-hailing service for the very first time as individuals bought more meals provided to their houses.
Uber, which loses cash, laid off numerous staff members in 2019 as it attempted to get expenses under control. The business presently has more than 21,000 full-time staff members; its chauffeurs are independent specialists.
While Uber has actually been strong in food shipment, it has actually needed to ward off deep-pocketed competitors that have actually looked for to get market share by supporting shipment expenses with promos and discount rates.
DoorDash, which went public in December, has actually quickly broadened over the previous couple of years and has actually gotten the smaller sized food shipment start-up Caviar. Other considerable rivals consist of Simply Consume Takeaway, which vanquished Uber to get Grubhub in 2015 for more than $7 billion, and Deliveroo, a shipment business that is popular in Europe.
