The Journal reports that investors in the new round include Microsoft and Indian media company Bennett Coleman & Co.’s investment subsidiary.
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Uber’s valuation now matches the high-water mark set by Facebook in 2011, when the social network company reached a $50 billion market cap. Microsoft declined to comment. Its entry into India has been anything but smooth, and the company has been at odds with authorities in New Delhi since an Uber driver there was accused of rape in December.
Uber’s faster rise to $50 billion reflects its aggressive global expansion into more than 300 cities and growing popularity ferrying millions of riders daily. It also means Uber has pulled ahead of Chinese phone maker Xiaomi to become the most valuable private startup in the world. “We aren’t commenting on additional speculation”.
It’s odd that Microsoft would make such a big late-stage investment in a company like Uber, which falls well outside of its recent focus on user productivity. In a deal announced in June, Uber acquired assets related to street imaging and 3-D views used by Microsoft’s Bing Maps service and offered jobs to roughly 100 of its workers.
Separately, Uber said this week that it would invest $1 billion in India in the next nine months.
Uber, which already has investors such as Google Inc and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, operates in 57 countries.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Uber “hasn’t publicly discussed plans for an initial public offering”, though it has taken other steps that suggest it may be preparing to do so.
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Unlike the two auto rental giants – Hertz which is valued at $7.8 billion and Avis at $25 billion – Uber is not a auto service company and does not own vehicle fleets to maintain, which keeps costs down.
