SoftBank eyes multibillion-dollar Uber investment
- Tuesday, July 25th, 2017
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Japanese tech giant SoftBank is eyeing up a multibillion-dollar stake in Uber, just a day after its involvement in $2bn (£1.5bn) investment round in the San Francisco-based ride hailing company’s Southeast Asian rival, Grab.
On top of its investment in Grab, it has invested elsewhere in Asia’s ride hailing industry, hedging its bets on India’s Ola and China’s Didi Chuxing also – all of which represent challenges for Uber in their respective regions, with Didi even buying Uber China for $1bn.
Now, it seems SoftBank is ready to take its biggest leap into the ride hailing industry yet – despite, supposedly, having no interest in investing in Uber just last week. 
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, SoftBank has entered into preliminary talks with Uber and any potential deal would likely need to wait until the ride hailing company hires a new CEO, following Travis Kalanick’s departure from the role last month.
