Uber ‘lays off’ 185 former Postmates workers

Uber has laid off about 185 Postmates workers, and plans to further integrate Postmates’ infrastructure within its Uber Eats segment, The New York Times reported. Uber acquired Postmates in July for $2.65 billion, following a failed attempt to buy rival food delivery service Grubhub.

Meal delivery has been one bright spot for Uber amid the pandemic, as bookings in its Uber Eats division rose 135 percent year-over-year in the third quarter while its ride-hailing segment dropped 50 percent over the same time period. It’s consolidated other parts of the company in a bid to become profitable by the end of 2021, selling its autonomous vehicles segment to Aurora Innovation in December, the same month it sold its Uber Elevate flying taxi division to Joby Aviation.

The latest cuts will see Postmates founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann depart the company, along with most of its executive team, according to the Times.

Uber Eats continues to trail competing food delivery service DoorDash, which went public in December, and showed a brief period of profitability over the summer. According to market research firm Edison Trends, in the fourth quarter DoorDash had 48 percent of the market share for food delivery services, with the combined Uber Eats/Postmates at 35 percent.

Uber did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Sunday.