Uber has struck a deal that could lead to a huge investment by a consortium led by Japanese conglomerate Softbank and San Francisco group Dragoneer.<\/p>\n
The size of the potential investment has not been disclosed, but reports say it could be up to $10bn (\u00a37.6bn).<\/p>\n
The ride-hailing company said the money would fuel Uber’s expansion and investments in technology.<\/p>\n
But it could transform its corporate structure and see a share listing by 2019, if the deal goes ahead.<\/p>\n
“We’ve entered into an agreement with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer on a potential investment,” Uber said.<\/p>\n
“We believe this agreement is a strong vote of confidence in Uber’s long-term potential.”<\/p>\n
If completed, the firm plans to use the funds to expand its business further as it faces increasing competition at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
As well as boosting its investments in technology, Uber said it would strengthen its corporate governance.<\/p>\n
That could help bring stability to the world’s most valuable start-up after a\u00a0year of scandals,\u00a0infighting and the\u00a0ousting of former chief executive Travis Kalanickin June.<\/p>\n
Early adopter<\/strong><\/p>\n Softbank, the Japanese telecommunications and technology giant, declined to comment on the potential investment when contacted by the BBC.<\/p>\n However, Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son said last week that “whether we make an investment in Uber, or not, is not decided yet”.<\/p>\n He said a deal would depend on “pricing and the terms and conditions” as most of Softbank’s investment would be used to buy out shares from current investors.<\/p>\n Buying the existing shares would reportedly allow Softbank to take a 14% stake in Uber, while $1bn is said to have been set aside to buy new shares.<\/p>\n Mr Son added that while Uber was struggling with “management issues”, he believed it was still a “good company”.<\/p>\n Sources told the BBC it could take up to a month for the investment deal to be wrapped up.<\/p>\n Once completed, it would mark the latest in a series of overseas investments by Softbank including:<\/p>\n SoftBank has not revealed how much of the money to be invested in Uber would come from its technology focused Vision Fund, which has more than $93bn at its disposal.<\/p>\n Mr Son is known to have an eye for potentially transformative industries and trends. He was an early investor in Alibaba and owns close to 30% of the Chinese e-commerce giant’s shares.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Uber has struck a deal that could lead to a huge investment by a consortium led by Japanese conglomerate Softbank and San Francisco group Dragoneer. The size of the potential investment has not been disclosed, but reports say it could be up to $10bn (\u00a37.6bn). The ride-hailing company said the money would fuel Uber’s expansion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[11578,114],"yoast_head":"\n\n