Uber selling autonomous vehicle arm
SAN RAMON, Calif. – Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Self-driving vehicle technology company Aurora will take control of the technology and employees behind Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group in a stock transaction, the companies said Monday.
Uber will also invest $400 million in Aurora, and Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Aurora’s board of directors.
After the transaction, Aurora will be worth $10 billion and Uber will hold a 26% stake in the company, Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said in an interview.
“Our first product will be in trucking and freight, but we look forward to taking this great team that we have and accelerating that while continuing working on light vehicles and ride-haling, and we’ll ultimately see our vehicles deploying on the Uber network,” Urmson said.
Uber will not have exclusive rights as a ride-hailing company to Aurora’s technology, but the two companies will have a “preferred relationship,” Urmson said.San Francisco-based Uber will lose a critical piece of its company after the pandemic cut into its finances by suppressing demand for shared rides. Its path to profitability has often been linked with its plans to deploy autonomous vehicles and reduce the high cost of paying drivers.
Consumers take out loans, using fewer credit cards
WASHINGTON – U.S. consumers took out more auto and student loans in October but cut back on credit-card borrowing, a sign they remain cautious about spending amid a spike in virus cases.
The Federal Reserve said Monday that consumer borrowing rose 2.1% in October to $4.16 trillion, pushed higher by a 4.8% jump in a category mostly made up of student and auto loans. Credit-card borrowing fell 6.7%.
The figures suggest consumers haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic recession.
Overall borrowing is still 1% below its prepandemic level. Outstanding balances on credit cards are down nearly 11% compared with their level in February, before the pandemic intensified.
The economy rebounded quickly in the July-September quarter from the spring business shutdowns, but growth has slowed in the fall.
Consumer spending rose in October, according to the Commerce Department, but that increase was the smallest since April, which was the peak of business closures.
JCPenney emerges smaller, ready for holiday rush
The JCPenney department store chain is back, smaller but more solvent, just in time for the holiday sales extravaganza and the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The chain completed its previously announced sale of the retail operations to Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management Inc., according to a Monday statement.
It’s the first step in a process that splits JCPenney into two parts, an operating company led by its mall landlords and a property company owned by its lenders.
The operating company has been freed from Chapter 11 bankruptcy court supervision.
The property group will need until sometime in next year’s first half to finish getting organized, JCPenney said.
“We have always been firm believers in JCPenney, and are very pleased to help preserve this iconic institution and save tens of thousands of jobs,” said CEO David Simon.
From wire reports