FUND BOSS SAYS UBER WILL GO BANKRUPT
Available while stocks last. $4.00 postage and handling applies for phone orders. NEW-AGE chauffeur service Uber “is one of the stupidest investments in history” and “a Ponzi scheme” that will be “bankrupt in a decade”, says a prominent fund manager.
Magellan Financial chief Hamish Douglass says while many investors believe Uber will benefit from a perceived “Facebook effect” by “chucking Uber Eats and all this other stuff at its mission”, the reality was likely more unkind.
“When I look at it, the problem about their business model is one side of the network will collapse if we get autonomous driving,” he said yesterday.
Mr Douglass, who steers the $40 billion investment fund, said the company’s solution to paying drivers who own their car – autonomous driving – was capital intensive.
“If we get to autonomous driving, I think one side of their business totally collapses,” he told the Stockbrokers Association in Sydney.
Mr Douglass said that in that context, Uber had “no advantage in autonomous driving software”.
“They tried to steal the technology from Google and ended up in court,” he said.
“That whole part of the business is falling apart.”