Grab is becoming a whole lot bigger thanks to a deal between the two biggest ride-sharing companies, Grab and Uber in Southeast Asia. Uber has agreed to sell its SEA business to Grab which will put them at the top alongside Indonesia’s GoJek which is backed by Alphabet Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
However, Uber pulling out of SEA is not as bad as it sounds, as the US ride-sharing company will still have a 30 percent share in the agreement based on a statement from a source that wants to remain anonymous. When asked about it, the two ride-sharing companies declined to comment on the deal and will probably make an announcement at a later time. Uber has been going through some tough times, with the recent regulatory crackdown in Europe and a scandal that drove co-founder Travis Kalanick out as CEO of Uber in June.
SoftBank which is on the board of directors of Uber has mentioned that they want to focus on US, Europe and Australia as they found there is lack of profits in Asia. Uber’s current CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has said in a conference back in November that Asia will not be profitable for them anytime soon due to how heavily Uber is subsidizing rides here.
We will report back with more information when Uber and Grab makes this deal public. As of now, the Uber app is still operational in Malaysia, but we might see it leave our app stores when the deal is finalized.
