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SAN FRANCISCO – Uber is in talks to sell an equity stake in its standalone technology unit to SoftBank and other investors for up to $ 1 billion, while the company that is doing business is in the process of selling off its shares. is preparing to go on auction is preparing to go public, according to four people knowing the issue.
Discussions are still ongoing and may not result in an investment, said the people who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak in public. In addition to SoftBank, the investor consortium includes a car maker, they added.
Under the terms of the proposed agreement, investors would buy a stock of Uber shares specifically dedicated to the self-driving technology unit. Uber would retain majority control over the self-sustaining arm and use this investment to fund its research and development activities. The agreement would give a value of 5 to 10 billion dollars to the autonomous enterprise, said the population.
Uber has filed confidentially to go public in December in what would be one of the biggest initial public technology offerings in recent years. The company, based in San Francisco, could reach a value of $ 120 billion when it will reach the stock market.
But Uber is under control for its losses – its net loss has been $ 842 million in the fourth quarter – and autonomous driving technologies are expensive. An injection of $ 1 billion could allay concerns about the high cost of developing autonomous cars.
The proposed investment had already been reported by the The Wall Street Journal.
For years, Uber has invested heavily in autonomous cars, which, in his opinion, will eventually become a primary means of transportation, replacing its human drivers. But its autonomous unit, created in 2014, loses between 100 and 200 million dollars per quarter. Its fleet of vehicles was also immobilized for nine months last year after one of the autonomous cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. In the past, Uber had considered splitting the unit as a separate entity.
Uber Freight, the company's long-haul trucking business, also has a separate valuation based on equity groups specifically assigned to the unit. As part of an agreement with its employees, the company rewarded them with a stake in Uber Freight as a standalone company at the end of last year.
SoftBank is already a major investor in Uber after acquiring approximately 17.5% of the shares of the company specializing in the redemption after a significant discount. In addition to Uber, SoftBank has paid money to companies like Ola in India and Grab in Southeast Asia.
SoftBank has also invested in companies specializing in autonomous vehicles. In mid-2018, the company invested $ 2.25 billion in GM Cruise Holdings, a division of General Motors. The structuring of Cruise as a separate entity has allowed General Motors to isolate the losses of its autonomous division.
In August, Toyota invested 500 million dollars in Uber. The move was to allow Uber to put its autonomous driving technology into Toyota vehicles.
"Toyota is constantly reviewing and considering different investment options, but we have nothing to report about a new investment in Uber yet," said a spokeswoman for Toyota on Wednesday.
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