 "Ola denies reports of stake sale to Uber")
“It cannot be further from the truth that Uber is attempting to take a stake in Ola. No such discussions have taken place, and even if we are approached anytime in future, we have no such intentions. We believe we are gaining market share over Uber in India,” Avnish Bajaj, managing director, Matrix Partners India, said. “With just one category, such as Ola Micro, being on the path to become larger than Uber, we can only see the momentum continuing to build. We hear this from employees leaving Uber for various jobs.”
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The DNA newspaper reported on Friday Uber was close to take a controlling stake in Ola for an enterprise value of $4 billion, with key investors planning to offload shares.
The report, quoting an unnamed source, and said co-founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati were planning to offload a stake but Japanese investor Softbank was objecting to it.
Softbank backs Didi Kuadi in China, Grabtaxi in Southeast Asia and Lyft in the US. It has formed a global alliance to take on Uber.
Bajaj said in a statement: “We have seen Uber in India reacting to Ola’s growth with moves not seen elsewhere — be it front-page advertising, dramatic fare cuts and rapid changes in categories — so one can only surmise they are worried about their declining market share. We are clearly in the winning horse with Ola and have no doubts about its future.”
Uber, which dominates the US and Brazil markets, is facing intense competition from Didi Kuaidi in China and Ola in India, where local firms have a significant advantage against the US firm. Ola said that it would initiate legal action against DNA.