Uber and Lyft reportedly in talks to buy bus startup

SkedaddleBoth Uber and Lyft are exploring the idea of acquiring crowdsourced bus startup Skedaddle, as the ride-hailing firms show more signs of wanting to takeover the entire transportation space, according to reports.

According to TechCrunch, Uber has been in talks with the startup for over a month, citing a source familiar with discussions. Meanwhile, Skedaddle is said to have begun talks with Lyft a little more recently.

However, Lyft has told both TechCrunch and Axios that it is not holding any talks with Skedaddle. Uber and Skedaddle have refused to comment.

Skedaddle, which was founded in 2013 before launching its service in 2015, works in a similar way to carpooling. It lets people crowdsource private bus rides to locations such as music festivals. To do this, users login to the Skeddadle app and select a route, along with a desired pickup location and time. Then, as long as nine others sign up to use the same route ahead of the departure time, the ride is booked.

It is not known how far talks have progressed with Skedaddle and whichever firms it is actually having conversations with but the news is just another sign of ride-hailing firms’ desires to offer multi-modal transport networks to the public.