Lyft’s CEO David Risher says ‘My bad’ on margin error, ‘It was one zero’

livemint.com:

Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, taking the blame for a typo in a company press release Tuesday that erroneously projected a particular measure of earnings margin to expand by an eye-watering 500 basis points. (In reality, Lyft expects margins to grow by 50 basis points.) “This was a bad error," he said, “but it was one zero in a press release." The typo, which actually appeared in multiple company documents on Tuesday, helped drive a 67% surge in Lyft’s shares in after-hours trading.

The mistake was a serious one, Risher said. But it shouldn’t take away from Lyft’s “butt-kicking" financial performance, he said.

The company reported that gross bookings had jumped 17% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier to $3.72 billion, surpassing estimates for $3.67 billion. Also Read | Lyft shares rocket 60% then level to 17% on margin correction, stock still up on positive forecasts Risher said his team at Lyft was taking the error very seriously and noted it was corrected “within seconds of finding it." But in fact, on a call with analysts to discuss the quarterly results, Lyft executives didn’t immediately note the error in their opening remarks.

Lyft Chief Financial Officer Erin Brewer just began referring to the company’s outlook for a 50-basis-point expansion. It wasn’t until later in the call, when an analyst pointed out the discrepancy, that Brewer acknowledged her outlook was “actually a correction from the press release." The company eventually corrected its statement and regulatory filings.