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Microsoft hands a cool US$100 million to Uber for investment

By Liu Hongzuo - on 3 Aug 2015, 3:03pm

Microsoft hands a cool US$100 million to Uber for investment

US$100 million from Microsoft is what many startups would kill to have, and Uber just got it.

Uber’s latest round of investment-soliciting netted the taxi-hailing app a neat US$100 million (S$137 million) – from Microsoft no less. Their inclusion brings Uber’s current valuation to approximately US$50 billion (S$68.billion), and the Microsoft deal was finalized late last week.

Kristin Carvell, a spokeswoman for Uber, confirmed that the Microsoft chip-in is true, and that the financing has been in the works all along.

“We filed to authorize this new funding more than two months ago,” commented Carvell. “The filing is available to the public. We aren’t commenting on additional speculation.”

Microsoft’s investment and involvement can be seen as bewildering, considering the amount of money and timing that the tech giant has decided on investing with the taxi-hailing app. In 2013, Google has already invested US$258 million (S$355 million) with Uber, speculated by both tech and financial analysts to be a strategic move for Uber to steer itself towards driverless car technology, a Google pet project that’s been ongoing since 2012.

In late 2014, Chinese search engine Baidu also invested an undisclosed amount with the taxi-hailing app, on top of confirming that Baidu will integrate mapping and mobile-search applications to improve Uber’s performance and standing in China alone – an important move as the other major taxi apps in China are backed by other tech giants such as Tencent and Alibaba.

It is most logical that Microsoft’s current investment is recognition of its ongoing partnership with Uber – for instance, Microsoft sold a part of its Bing mapping service to Uber, as well as having integrated Cortana, Microsoft’s voice-controlled AI, for ordering an Uber cab. However, it is still worth noting that Microsoft chose to invest after Uber has been receiving flak, having being constantly persecuted in Asia and other parts of the world for bringing unregulated disruption to taxi economies all around. Legal troubles at a regional scale should hamper Uber’s growth, after all.

Source: Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Straits Times, Wall Street Journal

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