Saturday turned out to be a big surprise for everyone especially those who frequently travel via cabs in metropolitan cities. For the starters, since last night, various media reports had been reporting that India’s two leading cab aggregators, Ola and Uber, were in talks for a possible merger in San Francisco, US.
According to Economic Times, this is not the first time that such speculations are doing the rounds. Ola and Uber had previously held merger discussions four years ago. This happened when Softbank, the common investor for both the firms, had pushed for a merger.
Meanwhile, desis on Twitter have gone into a frenzy after the hearing the news. One Twitter user even introduced a possible name for the new company, ‘Ubla’.
Hearing news that Uber and Ola are planning a merger. The new company will be named Ubla.
— Hemant (@hemantbuch) July 29, 2022
If that is true than I am happy for Uber! UBER got saved just in Nick of time. It would have become trash like OLA! I realised how MERU is so much better after I booked it yesterday from the Airport.
— Rohit Sharma – it’s there in my NAME! (@rohitvats76) July 30, 2022
Ola + Uber = Oo Lalaa Laa The marriage of these two apps likey!
-@madhu_sahoo
Ola nahi aati thi to uber book karte the and vice versa. Ab kya hoga?
— Shobhit Kumar 🇮🇳 (@BAAGI07622732) July 30, 2022
If Uber & Ola merge,
— Gaurav Shrishrimal (Kaagaz) (@1992gaurav) July 30, 2022
Will we have permanent pricing surge 😅?
The important question is that after the merger the new company will be called as what? Ola or Uber. Blasphemy of the highest order.
-@ImportantObserv
Uber and Ola merging.
— 𝕄𝕣 𝔸 🏏 (@cricdrugs) July 30, 2022
When business gets tough rivals become friend.
So if Ola and Uber merge, we got a monopolistic thing going right? How is that good for passengers
— Nidhie Sharma (@IamNidhieSharma) July 30, 2022
If Ola and Uber merge, this will result in no competition, so they will automatically increase their charges to grow their business.
-@ponmudikrishnan
This is just formality. Majority of the drivers have already merged and have both Ola and Uber.
-@anas707
Meanwhile, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has rubbished the reports of their merger. Reacting to Economic Times report, Aggarwal tweeted that Ola will “never merge”. Check out his tweet:
Absolute rubbish. We’re very profitable and growing well. If some other companies want to exit their business from India they are welcome to! We will never merge. https://t.co/X3wC9HDrnr
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) July 29, 2022
According to the same media report, Uber also responded to the news. “We are not, nor have we been, in merger talks with Ola,” said company’s spokesperson.
