AppleInsider Staff
Lyft, the second-largest ride-hailing firm in the U.S., in recent months made overtures to sell itself to tech companies, automotive manufacturers and competitors, but failed to hook a buyer.
Citing sources familiar with the situation, The New York Times reports Lyft held talks with or approached Apple, Amazon, General Motors, Google, Uber and Didi Chuxing over a potential sale. The ride-hailing service was unable to find a suitable buyer.
GM, which recently boosted Lyft's valuation to $5.5 billion with a $500 million infusion, showed the most interest in an acquisition, but ultimately passed without tendering a formal written offer. A separate report from The Information last week said Lyft was propositioned by GM, but rejected the takeover bid in favor of a new funding round.
Further confusing the situation is Uber China's sale to Apple partner Didi Chuxing. Lyft previously struck an accord with Didi, among other services, to stave off an aggressive international push from Uber. It is unclear how Didi's acquisition of Uber China's assets will affect the deal with Lyft.
The Times says that while Lyft is not yet profitable, the company has some $1.4 billion in cash to keep it afloat.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
17 Comments
Disruption is easy. Making money is not.
If the class-action lawsuit against Uber go through and they are forced to treat their freelance drivers / independent contractors as if they were real employees (which includes all of the myriad legal negatives associated with such an arrangement), then both Lyft and Uber will have a very hard time of making their models work, IMO.
These companies are fundamentally worthless because it is just software and a business plan. It can be replicated very easily. The only thing they have going for them is the branding and that is worth pennies to the dollar.
because the pink mustache is killing us softly.
Imagine how far this would get on Shark Tank.
What is the valuation of your company?
5.5 Billion.
How much profit did you make?
Nothing.
Errrrr.....