Microsoft Corp has agreed to invest about US$100 million in Uber Technologies Inc at a valuation of about US$50 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
The deal was finalized earlier on Friday, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing a private deal.
Uber, which was previously valued at US$40 billion when it raised financing earlier this year, is benefiting from investors who view its car-booking technology as the future of transport.
EXPAND OPERATIONS
The San Francisco-based company, led by chief executive officer Travis Kalanick, is using the cash to expand operations to cities across the globe.
“We filed to authorize this new funding more than two months ago,” Uber spokeswoman Kristin Carvell said. “The filing is available to the public. We are not commenting on additional speculation.”
Microsoft spokesman Tony Imperati declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Uber closed a US$1 billion financing round at a valuation of about US$51 billion, and that Microsoft participated in the deal.
MAPPING UNIT
Microsoft last month sold a portion of its Bing mapping unit to Uber, which offered positions to about 100 Microsoft employees who work on image acquisition and data analysis as part of the mapping team for Bing, Microsoft’s Web-search engine.
The two companies have also combined to integrate Uber into Microsoft’s Cortana voice-controlled assistant so that it can hail an Uber ride for users as a scheduled meeting on their calendar approaches.
An investment, if it happens, would be a recognition that the two companies have worked together in the past and plan to remain partners in the future, the person said.
Uber, founded in 2009 by Kalanick and Garrett Camp, has expanded to more than 300 cities in at least 57 nations.
The service has disrupted established taxi and limousine companies, which have often responded with protests.
Uber has also upset regulators, who have sued or banned the company from California to Brazil.
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