Japanese investor is the largest shareholder in both companies
Japanese investment giant SoftBank has called for a merger between homegrown Ola and US firm Uber’s India unit as part of its planned consolidation in Asia’s fast-growing ride hailing app market. The talks, facilitated by SoftBank, which is the largest investor in both companies, have been going on for nearly a year, according to sources close to the development. However, in the past few days, this call for a merger between Uber and Ola has gathered steam. Softbank’s push for consolidation in India’s ride hailing market comes days after Uber announced its exit from Southeast Asia after selling its local unit to rival Grab. Post the completion of that deal, Uber will control 27.5% stake in the combined entity. “Talks have been on between the senior executives of both the firms (Uber and Ola),” said one of the persons with direct knowledge of the talks, declining to state who the officials are given that the information is not public yet. “The deal may be closed in a couple of months,” the person added. Another source added that SoftBank is in favour of Ola acquiring the Indian unit of Uber, but the finer details of the deal are being discussed. Both companies are looking at having a controlling stake in the combined entity, which is also why the talks have been progressing relatively slowly so far....MORECan Didi+Uber = Düber be far behind?
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