Top Stories From the Breitbart News Desk

[Maganomics Daily]( Top Stories From the Breitbart News Desk Uber announced Monday that it was shedding its self-driving car unit. As part of the deal, Uber is investing $400 million for a 26% stake in the self-driving tech start-up, Aurora, that will take over the unit. So despite the news reports describing Uber as “selling” the business – which is known as Advanced Technologies Group, or ATG – it’s more accurate to say Uber is paying Aurora to take the unit off its hands. The short-term goal here is clearly to move Uber closer to profitability by shedding one of its most expensive side businesses. Over the years, Uber has poured hundreds of millions into ATG, and the unit is plagued with legal trouble. Uber said ATG and its other technology programs incurred a $104 million loss in the third quarter on $25 million in revenue. This is a big retreat for Uber. Just a few years ago, Uber was claiming self-driving cars would carry the company into profitability by cutting down on one of its biggest costs – paying drivers. Uber says it still plans to license the technology from Aurora someday, but the truth is that the self-driving financial plan was always questionable. Under the current business model, Uber is “asset-light” because drivers, rather than the company, own its fleet of for-hire cars. So who would be buying all those self-driving cars? That was never quite clear. Savvy outside investors would likely demand returns that reflected that the company no longer used drivers, eliminating the benefit of cutting out the drivers in the first place. Uber purchasing the cars would require enormous expenditures of capital and tempt investors to value the company along the lines of a car rental business rather than a tech growth company. [How To Live Your Best Life]( The pandemic has also played a role here. Not too long ago, the smart set liked to say car ownership would soon be a thing of the past. We would all use ridesharing programs of various sorts to get around town and commute to work. Self-driving cars would pick us up at home, drop us off, then scoot off to pick up the next passenger. That looks like a far less attractive proposition in the age of social distancing and heightened awareness of the dangers of shared space likely to persist long after this particular pandemic passes. Without the sharing model, autonomous cars seem far less compelling. It should not escape notice that the stock market didn’t seem to react at all to the positive news on vaccines today. That’s a signal that investors have mostly priced in the good news, which raises the risk that any unforeseen hiccups could be catalysts for sell-offs. In short, when good news doesn’t lift the market, it’s more likely that bad news will drag it down. Finally, the National Federation of Independent Business released its survey of small-business optimism yesterday. Not surprisingly, optimism declined in November as lockdowns took hold and the mainstream media and establishment politicians declared Joe Biden the winner of the election. As we’ve seen in other surveys, there’s no Biden boost visible in the economy. Even his supporters don’t seem to be able to generate enough enthusiasm about his likely presidency to offset the pessimism of those who supported Donald Trump in the election. – Alex Marlow, Breitbart News Network --------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORY [image]( [Uber Abandons Its Self-Driving-Car Dreams]( Ridesharing giant Uber has reportedly shut down its self-driving-car business, selling its Advanced Technologies Group division to self-driving startup Aurora. The deal will bring Aurora’s valuation to around $10 billion. [[Click here for more]( Recommended Link [TONIGHT: Jeff Brown Reveals the #1 Private Biotech for 2021]( [image]( The man who picked the #1 stock in the S&P 500 three out of the past four years… Is stepping forward to share details of his #1 private biotech of 2021 for free. It all happens tonight at 8 p.m. ET during “[The Cure Event]( [CLICK HERE TO RSVP NOW]( -- IN OTHER STORIES… [NYC Residents Could Face $3 Package-Delivery Surcharge Under Proposed Bill]( New York City residents could face a $3 surcharge on package deliveries – with an exception for food and medicine – under a proposed bill aimed to help fund the financially insolvent Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). [[Click here for more]( [McConnell: ‘Set Aside’ Liability Protection, State and Local Funding in COVID Relief Negotiations]( During a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called for liability protections and funding for state and local governments to be “set aside” in the next round of coronavirus relief and tackled when another request for relief comes in 2021 in order to pass a package that everyone can agree on. [[Click here for more]( [Small-Business Optimism Sinks in Election’s Aftermath and Return of Lockdowns]( The optimism of small-business owners faded in November, according to survey results released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business. [[Click here for more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Get Instant Access Click to read these free reports and automatically sign up for daily research. [image]( [The Trader’s Guide to Technical Analysis]( [image]( [America’s #1 Portfolio Protection Plan]( [image]( [The Gold Investor’s Guide]( [Maganomics]( Maganomics Institute 55 NE 5th Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483 [www.maganomics.com]( To ensure our emails continue reaching your inbox, please [add our email address]( to your address book. This editorial email containing advertisements was sent to {EMAIL} because you subscribed to this service. To stop receiving these emails, click [here](. Maganomics welcomes your feedback and questions. But please note: The law prohibits us from giving personalized advice. To contact Customer Service, call toll free Domestic/International: 1-888-415-6046, Mon–Fri, 9am–7pm ET, or email us [here](mailto:memberservices@maganomics.com). © 2020 Signal to Noise, LLC. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution of our content, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Signal to Noise, LLC. [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Use](