Uber has decided to sell its $10bn stake to Consortium led by Japanese conglomerate Softbank and San Francisco group Dragoneer, as per the reports.
This move has been planned to clear a way to Uber’s expansion and investments in technology. This $10bn stake deal is supposed to transform Uber’s corporate structure and see a share listing by 2019.
In a statement, Uber said, “We’ve entered into an agreement with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer on a potential investment.” The company further added, “We believe this agreement is a strong vote of confidence in Uber’s long-term potential.”
If the deal gets finalized, Uber has plans to to use the funds to expand its business further as the company is facing increasing competition at home and abroad. As per the company, boosting its investments in technology, it would strengthen its corporate governance.
But there is no statement available on behalf of Softbank till the news is written.
But last week in a statement, Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son said that it is not decided that if Softbank is going to invest in Uber or not.
If Softbank agrees to this deal in Uber, it will allow Softbank to take a 14% stake in Uber, while $1bn is said to have been set aside to buy new shares.
Mr Son is having a vast experience with an eye for potentially transformative industries and trends. Noteworthy thing is he was an early investor in Alibaba and owns close to 30% of the Chinese e-commerce giant’s shares. Mr Son stated that while Uber was struggling with “management issues”, still believed it was still a “good company”.
Still, if both the parties agree to the deal, it will take at least a month for the investment deal to be wrapped up, as per the reports.
Till now it is not clear on behalf of SoftBank that 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.
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