Investors Say Uber's Value Has Plummeted 20 Percent, Report

Uber’s value has dropped according to several mutual funds, Recode reported on Thursday.

The reported decrease in value comes as the startup continues to struggle with multiple scandals, including a data hack last November.

Fidelity Investments, Principal Funds and Blackrock have recently said they don’t feel like the ride-sharing company is worth as much as they previously believed, according to new documents.

The news comes after SoftBank agreed to purchase a large stake in Uber late last month at a $48 billion valuation. That’s a 30 percent discount from the previous $69 billion private investors valued the startup at in 2016.

Principal Funds also lowered its value of Uber. As of Nov. 30, Principal Funds said its holdings of the startup was valued at $7.2 million in its LargeCap Growth Fund I. That figure is down from $8.9 million, nearly a 20 percent decrease.

Fidelity, which is a large Uber shareholder, said in December that its holding of the startup was $228 million. In the recent documents, Fidelity said that as of Nov. 30, the same stock was valued at approximately $180 million, a 21 percent decrease in share price.

Uber and Fidelity have had some tensions lately. Lyft, Uber’s rival, announced last month that Fidelity had made an investment in the company. Fidelity also played a part in Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick’s departure from the company. Fidelity, Benchmark and other major investors at Uber wrote a letter to Kalanick demanding his resignation.

As for Blackrock, the asset manager said that as of Oct. 30 Uber was valued at approximately $268 million, down 16 percent. Back in April, before Kalanick resigned, Blackrock had valued the startup at $317 million.

Scandals At Uber Continue

The valuations come after tumultuous times at Uber. The company, which is now led by former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, is struggling with its image. The scandals escalated early last year after the #deleteUber campaign. Allegations of sexual harassment, which led to an internal probe by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as other reports of wild conduct tarnished Uber’s reputation too. The company was also hurt by its legal dispute with Waymo over stolen self-driving technology information, as well as its “Greyball tool.”

Another embarrassing tactic came into the spotlight this week. Uber reportedly developed a program to evade law enforcement. The program allowed Uber to remotely shut down all computers in an office in order to dodge police raids.