According to sources days after Uber sold its Southeast Asian business to rival Grab orchestrated by common investor SoftBank, rumors of an Ola-Uber merger in India have started doing the rounds. Meanwhile this deal too, is being facilitated by the same common investor. As per latest report the talks have been going on for nearly a year and it quotes sources as saying that the deal may be closed in a few months with Ola most likely acquiring Uber’s India operations.
An Ola spokesperson said “In India’s transformative digital journey, Ola will always be an active and integral part for decades to come. Moreover SoftBank and all other investors are committed to realizing this ambition. Presently Ola is always actively looking for opportunities for expansion of its footprint".
As far as Uber is concerned, India is one of its
largest markets. Uber CEO has reiterated it saying that it is more focused
on organic growth in the markets Uber operates in. Meanwhile Siddharth Pahwa,
ex-CEO of Meru Cabs and an industry expert says that while on a global level,
there are operational benefits of such deals, it might not be the best idea in
India because the unit economics of the business model has not yet been proved.
