OLA’s “Clearing the Air” About Uber’s Reported Takeover

OLA: Clearing the Air

Yesterday, a report was published by DNA that quoted “sources” claiming that Uber was looking to buy a controlling stake in rival OLA by buying out all of its stake holders, including promoters Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, except for SoftBank.

“Uber is buying a controlling stake in Ola, where all the shareholders, except SoftBank, is being bought out. The enterprise valuation is being estimated at $4billion,” said the source.

OLA rebuffed this report as baseless and today, has clarified on the official blog:

We would like to state that the article, attributed to an ‘unnamed source’ is completely false, misleading, malicious and planted in the said newspaper with the intent of causing harm to the Ola brand and creating confusion among our stakeholders.

We are shocked and dismayed at the lack of journalistic ethics in carrying the story, despite our repeated denial to the reporter and the publication’s editorial representatives. We also had received a verbal confirmation that the report shall not be carried given the company’s denial.

We will initiate appropriate legal action and seek redressal and compensation for the damage caused to us by this irresponsible reporting from DNA.

Yikes!