软银要求优步将重点放在美国和欧洲

Uber’s largest shareholder has called for the car-booking company to focus on recovering market share in the US and growing in key European markets, a strategy that would end the founders’ original vision of building a transport service “everywhere, for everyone”.

优步(Uber)最大股东要求这家叫车公司将重点放在恢复美国市场份额以及欧洲主要市场的增长上，该战略将终结优步创始人打造一个“在每个地方为每个人”的交通服务的初始愿景。

Rajeev Misra, a board director of Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank — which becomes Uber’s biggest shareholder on Thursday, with the formal closing of an $8.8bn investment — told the Financial Times that the transportation group had a faster path to profitability if it returned to its core markets such as the US, Europe, Latin America and Australia.

日本科技集团软银(SoftBank)的董事拉吉夫•米斯拉(Rajeev Misra)向英国《金融时报》表示，这家运输集团如果重返美国、欧洲、拉丁美洲和澳大利亚等核心市场，将更快走上盈利道路。周四软银正式完成了88亿美元投资，成为优步最大股东。

Mr Misra, who will join Uber’s board as part of the deal, insisted that exiting unprofitable countries was not solely about cutting its losses, which hit $1.5bn in the third quarter of 2017, but that growth prospects were more promising in its core markets.

作为上述交易的一部分，米斯拉将加入优步董事会。他坚称退出不盈利的国家不仅仅是为了减少损失——2017年第三季度达到15亿美元——也是因为其在核心市场的增长前景更为乐观。

“This is a growth company, this is not just about them cutting their losses,” he said. “Who cares if they lost a billion more or half a billion less?”

他说：“它是一个成长型公司，这并不只是为了让他们减少亏损。谁在乎他们是多损失了10亿还是少损失了5亿?”

Uber had already started to leave some of its biggest emerging markets towards the end of the tenure of Travis Kalanick, the company’s controversial chief executive who was ousted in June. It sold its China business to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016, and merged its Russia business with local technology group Yandex shortly after Mr Kalanick’s departure.

在特拉维斯•卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)任期结束之前——这位具有争议的前首席执行官在去年6月被赶下台——优步已经开始从几个最大的新兴市场撤出。它在2016年将中国业务出售给竞争对手滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)，并在卡兰尼克离任不久后将俄罗斯业务与当地科技集团Yandex合并。

However, Uber is still locked in expensive wars of attrition in India with local rival Ola and in Southeast Asia with Grab, and lost market share in the US to rival Lyft last year. SoftBank is already a major investor in several of Uber’s competitors — holding a 20 per cent stake in Didi, and a 30 per cent share of Grab — and its backing of the US company will complete its collection of ride-hailing themed investments.

不过优步仍深陷与本土对手的昂贵消耗战，在印度是与Ola，在东南亚是与Grab，而且去年在美国向对手Lyft丢掉了部分市场份额。软银已经是优步多个竞争对手的主要投资者——持有滴滴20%股份，以及Grab 30%股份——而其对优步的支持将使其叫车服务主题投资变得圆满。

SoftBank’s backing triggers a range of governance changes at the company and will give Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s new chief executive, more control as he tries to turn the company round. SoftBank owns 15 per cent of the company’s shares after the transaction, while a consortium of other investors bought 2.5 per cent in the same deal.

软银的投资引发了优步一系列治理变革，并将给予优步新任首席执行官达拉•霍斯劳沙希(Dara Khosrowshahi)更多控制权，他正努力带领这家公司扭转局面。此次交易后软银拥有优步15%的股份，财团内其他投资者在这笔交易中购入了2.5%的股份。

A key challenge for Uber will be to improve the company’s financial position ahead of an initial public offering expected by October 2019. Mr Khosrowshahi has said that a key goal for this year is for the company to demonstrate a path to profitability.

优步面临的主要挑战之一将是在预计于2019年10月进行的首次公开发行(IPO)之前改善公司的财务状况。霍斯劳沙希曾表示今年优步的一个关键目标是要展现盈利道路。

While Uber’s business is growing fast — gross bookings grew 85 per cent last year to about $37bn, compared with $20bn in 2016 — its losses have also widened.

虽然优步的业务正在快速增长——去年订单总额上涨85%，达到370亿美元，2016年这一数字为200亿美元——但其亏损也在扩大。

Mr Misra said that the company should also revamp its Uber Eats food delivery business, which has been one of the company’s recent bright spots and has been expanding into new markets aggressively.

米斯拉说，优步还应改善其Uber Eats美食配送业务，后者已成为该公司近期的亮点之一，且一直在大举向新市场扩张。

He added that the company needed to “restock human capital” following an exodus of much of its top leadership over the past 12 months.

他还表示，过去12个月很多高管纷纷离职，因此该公司需要“重新储备人力资本”。

“We’re proud to have SoftBank . . . and the entire consortium in the Uber family,” an Uber spokesman wrote in a statement. “This is a great outcome for our shareholders, employees and customers that strengthens Uber’s governance as we double down on our technology investments and continue to bring our services to more people in more places around the world.”

“我们为优步大家庭拥有软银……以及整个财团感到骄傲，”优步一位发言人在一份声明中写道，“这对我们的股东、员工和客户而言是个极佳结果，在我们加大技术投资并继续将我们的服务带给全球更多地方的更多民众之际，加强了优步的治理。”

The closing of the deal marks the end of a seven-month process that was often fraught and seemed at risk of falling part. Its conclusion is a key part of Uber’s plan to move out from under the shadow of Mr Kalanick. Mr Kalanick sold $1.4bn worth of his shares as part of the transaction, which also reduced the influence of the company’s early investors.

该交易的完成标志着一场持续7个月、常令人担忧且似乎有泡汤风险的谈判进程的结束。其完成是优步走出卡兰尼克阴影的计划的关键部分。作为交易的一部分，卡兰尼克出售了手中价值14亿美元的股份，这笔交易也降低了该公司早期投资者的影响力。

Talks between SoftBank and venture capital firm Benchmark, a major Uber shareholder, started in June. But all discussions were put on hold over the summer when Uber was without a chief executive for more than two months.

软银与优步大股东、风投公司Benchmark的谈判始于去年6月。但去年夏天所有谈判被迫暂停，当时优步首席执行官空缺长达两个多月。

The process resumed after Uber’s board appointed Mr Khosrowshahi as chief executive in September, although it was again delayed several times by the deep division on Uber’s board, which struggled to present a united front.

优步董事会去年9月份任命霍斯劳沙希为首席执行官后，谈判得以恢复，不过难以形成统一战线的优步董事会内部的严重分歧再次导致多次延期。

Arianna Huffington, the media entrepreneur and an Uber director, said that the company saw SoftBank as a strategic partner.

媒体企业家、优步董事阿里安娜•赫芬顿(Arianna Huffington)表示，优步将软银视为战略合作伙伴。

“It was strategically very important for Uber to have SoftBank on the cap table in a significant way,” she said, referring to its investments in competitors.

她在谈到软银对优步竞争对手的投资时表示：“对优步来说，让软银成为重要股东具有非常重大的战略意义。”

“The deal would not have happened without Rajeev being able to see all the big, strategic reasons why that deal was important for the whole ride-sharing industry, and not being stopped by the internal drama, but always being able to navigate beyond it.”

“如果不是拉吉夫看到该交易对整个叫车行业之所以重要的所有重大战略原因，并且没有受到内部闹剧的阻碍，而总能高瞻远瞩，这一交易就不会发生。”