Uber sells Southeast Asia branch to largest competitor

Taxi service Uber has sold its Southeast Asian branch to its biggest competitor in that region, Grab. It’s the third time in a few years that Uber has given up in one area. That happened before in China and Russia.

Uber sells its branch to Grab for a 27.5 percent stake in that company, Recode reports. It is estimated that the share is worth ‘several billions of dollars’, the director of Uber states in an email to employees, according to Recode. Grab is the market leader in Southeast Asia and can further strengthen its position with the deal. Southeast Asia consists of countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also joins Grab’s board, a sign that this is a big deal. In addition to the taxi service, Uber is also selling its food delivery service UberEats in Southeast Asia to Grab.

According to Khosrowshahi, the deals in Russia, China and now Southeast Asia are not a strategy in themselves. “One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we have too many battles against too many competitors on too many fronts. This deal puts us in a position to compete with focus and weight in our key markets, while giving us a valuable and growing share in large and important markets where we are not present.”