ANI technologies, promoters of Ola cabs have categorically denied any intention to sell its stake to Uber.
“We would like to state that the article, attributed to an ‘unnamed source’ is completely false, misleading, malicious and planted in the said newspaper with the intent of causing harm to the Ola brand and creating confusion among our stakeholders,” ANI Technologies commented in its statement.
When contacted, Uber refused to give any comments. Reportedly, Uber is aiming to acquire a controlling stake in Ola. Uber will then be likely to get around 74% share, leaving only 26% to SoftBank. This deal will also make Bhavesh Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati exit the company.
Ola cabs in India has around 40-45% market share, making it a bigger player in India than Uber which has only 20-25% share.
How Would They Stack Up?
Outside of India, Ola had announced a strategic partnership with many aggregators to take on Uber. So, in most probable calculations, it would be surprising to see Ola selling stakes to Uber. In a classic case of chickens coming home to roost, Uber had sued rival Ola in March, alleging that Ola created 90,000 fake Uber accounts using falsified phone numbers.
At the outset of it, with rivalry intensifying between the two, it is worth keeping a tab on the speculations around the two cab aggregation giants in India.
