Why Ola's founder turned down a $11 billion deal with SoftBank
8 April 2019 11:55 PM GMT
Softbank was an early backer of Ola, but Aggarwal has grown concerned about its influence since it took a stake in Uber Technologies Inc
- The Japanese conglomerate, led by Masayoshi Son, was an early backer of Ola, but Aggarwal has grown concerned about its influence as SoftBank took a stake in Uber Technologies Inc, and then encouraged the rivals to merge.
- Son struck a preliminary deal to put another $1.1 billion into Ola to boost his stake to more than 40 per cent, according to sources.
- Bhavish is spurning SoftBank money as he does not want to get diluted out of Ola, said Mohandas Pai, venture capitalist and former chief financial officer of Infosys Ltd. Founders become employees when someone sits on your board and tells you how to run the show.
- It also entered the food delivery business in India, burning cash in a bid to grab market share from Uber Eats as well as local food delivery operators, Swiggy and Zomato.
- Yet as the two sides worked to finalise the agreement, SoftBank held talks to invest in Uber -- and Aggarwal grew more wary of the impact on Ola.
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