Lower ride prices could be coming to Uber after the company’s recent layoffs.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi pointed to lower prices as one way that Uber plans to use the money it’s saving from laying off 10% of its corporate workforce, or about 3,300 people. The company announced the job cuts earlier this month.
“We are going to take the savings there and essentially reinvest it back in the business, lowering prices, improving selection, and continuing to invest in our growth program,” the CEO said during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on Thursday.
Uber is also planning to put savings from insurance costs toward lower prices — a move that should help keep riders using Uber’s app, he said.
The layoffs came as Uber has largely exceeded analysts’ expectations in recent quarterly earnings reports. The company’s stock also rose about 2% on Thursday after it disclosed in an SEC filing that Khosrowshahi had added about $10 million in Uber stock to his holdings.
Khosrowshahi said that Uber picked the right time to make the layoffs because the company was in “a position of strength versus weakness.”
“Some companies wait,” he said. “We don’t believe in waiting.”
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