It was reported a few weeks ago that Uber was in talks with Grab to sell its Southeast Asian business to the company in return for a stake. It was confirmed a few days ago that Uber is going to exit the entire Southeast Asian market, merging its business with Grab in exchange for a 27.5 percent stake in the company. While Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company won’t exit any more markets, a new report suggests that we might see the company exit another key market.
Uber’s deal with Grab wasn’t the first such deal that the company has made. It first did this in China back in 2016 when after struggling to compete with local ride-hailing giant Didi, it decided to sell its business to Didi for a stake. It then inked a similar deal with Yandex in Russia just last year.
Reports had suggested that Uber was struggling in Southeast Asia as well where locally based Grab is one of the largest competitors. So eventually the company decided to pack up and leave, allowing Grab to significantly expand its dominance over the market.
According to a new report, Uber and India’s Ola are in merger talks. The talks are said to have been on for the past one year and are now said to have intensified over the past few days. The talks are reportedly being brokered by Japan’s SoftBank which is an investor in both Uber and Ola. It merits mentioning here that SoftBank is an investor in both Grab and Uber as well.
Ola is believed to control 70 percent of the Indian market with Uber accounting for 26 percent. If a deal is reached, it may see Ola buying out the Indian division of Uber. A spokesperson for Ola said that the company is “actively looking for opportunities for expansion of its footprint,” adding that it has the backing of investors. Uber declined to comment.
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