Uber has released a very controlled peek at its financial situation to Bloomberg, a first for the ride-hailing giant that's exercised its right as a private company to tell the public as little as possible about its profits and losses. The rosy picture it paints couldn't possibly have anything to do with the endless series of scandals the company has experienced in recent months, so we won't discuss those. In numbers that excluded its China business — Uber sold its operation to rival Didi Chuxing last summer, ending an expensive rivalry that cost the company at least $1 billion in losses last year — Uber insisted its sales growth outpaced its losses.

Uber's gross increase from bookings was 28 percent over the last three months of 2016, up to $6.9 billion. The company generated $2.9 billion in revenue, representing a 74 percent increase over the third quarter, and losses rose 6.1 percent over the same period to $991 million. As Columbia University business professor Jeff Jones told Bloomberg, “That’s a lot of cash to burn in a quarter.”

Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor at New York University, echoed that sentiment in another statement to Bloomberg. “This is a cash-burning machine," Damodaran said.

"We’re fortunate to have a healthy and growing business, giving us the room to make the changes we know are needed on management and accountability, our culture and organization, and our relationship with drivers,” Rachel Holt, who is in charge of Uber’s US ride-hailing business, wrote in a statement to Bloomberg.

Those are numbers with serious caveats, Business Insider adds. Per the Bloomberg piece, Uber's revenue is "only the portion Uber takes from fares, except in the case of its carpooling service; the company counts the entire amount of an UberPool fare as revenue." Furthermore, Uber's loss statement "doesn’t account for employee stock compensation, certain real-estate investments, automobile purchases, and other expenses."

Burn, baby, burn.

Related: Uber Created Fake Lyft Accounts To Track Rival Drivers In Program Codenamed 'Hell'