SoftBank says considering investment in Uber but no final agreement reached
TOKYO: Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp said on Tuesday it was considering investing in Uber Technologies Inc but there was no final agreement at this stage.
“If conditions on share price and a minimum of shares are not satisfactory for the SoftBank Group side, there is a possibility the SoftBank Group may not make an investment,” it said in a statement.
Uber said this week that a planned deal with SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group was moving forward. The investment could be worth up to $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter have said..
SoftBank and Dragoneer are leading a consortium that plans to invest $1 billion to $1.25 billion in Uber (762.2 million pounds to 952.7 million pounds), the mostly highly valued venture-backed company in the world, along with a purchase of up to 17 percent of existing shares in a secondary transaction.
Progress in the negotiations came after venture capital firm Benchmark, an early investor with a board seat in the rideservices company, and former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick struck a peace deal, reaching agreement over terms of the planned SoftBank investment.
The Japanese tech and telecoms firm has become a prolific investor in ride sharing firms such as China’s Didi and India’s Ola as it works to achieve SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s vision of a future driven by artificial intelligence and interconnected devices. — Reuters