Scooter-Share Company Tosses Financial Reports

Bird was counting money in customers’ digital “wallets” as revenue, and has admitted that financial statements from 2020 and 2021 “should no longer be relied upon.”

1 minute read

November 14, 2022, 9:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Electric Scooters

Karl_Sonnenberg / Shutterstock

“Bird overstated the revenue it received from its shared electric scooters for at least two years, the company admitted in documents filed (PDF) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday,” reports Andre J. Hawkins.

“The phantom revenue was discovered after an audit of financial statements from 2020 and 2021 in which Bird found it was counting as revenue customers’ preloaded ‘wallet’ balances following the completion of certain scooter trips,” according to the article.

A noted by the article, the financial miscalculations are the latest setback for the company credited with sparking the scooter boom of 2018 (after the company’s founding in April 2017). With shakeups in leadership and the end of operations in multiple European countries, there’s plenty to read about the current state of Bird at the source article below.

Monday, November 14, 2022 in The Verge

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