Uber said its chief technology officer will leave the business, amid reports that the troubled ride-hailing platform plans to lay off 5,400 workers to cut costs.
The San Franciso-based firm said chief technology officer Thuan Pham (pictured) will resign, according to a SEC filing on 24 April. Pham leaves the business, which has never made a profit since it was founded in 2009 , on 16 May.
Pham said: “While the work is never done, I feel comfortable hanging up my hat at a time when the Uber engineering team is at peak productivity, we have built robust system scale and stability, and are well prepared to face the future”.
Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, added: “As the leader of our engineering organization for the last seven years, Thuan has made important contributions that have helped make Uber into the global technology platform it is today.”
Shares of Uber (UBER) have regained most of the ground they lost after the February sell-off triggered by the coronavirus health emergency and have accumulated a 1.3% gain so far this year, a few points ahead of the US tech-laced index Nasdaq, which is 4% down in the year-to-date. The mobile app business trades at $31.42 in afternoon dealing, but remains well below its $45 initial public offering debut price last May.
The resignation of Uber’s head of tech comes only a week before the company releases its financial results for the first quarter of 2020, expecting to book heavy $2.2bn quarterly losses next Thursday due to stay-at-home measures across the globe.
The tech company has also withdrawn its earnings guidance for the year, following similar moves from other big tech firms, saying “it is impossible to predict with precision the pandemic’s cumulative impact on our future financial results”.
Uber’s Khosrowshahi plans to cut costs by laying off 20% of its staff, around 5,400 jobs of its 27,000 workforce, reported The Information on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the platform said: “As you would expect, the company is looking at every possible scenario to ensure we get to the other side of this crisis in a stronger position than ever.”
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