Drive Wire for August 15th: Lyft Declines GM’s Purchase Offer

Instead of looking for an owner, Lyft is focusing on its next round of fund-raising.
www.thedrive.com

Share

Today on Drive Wire, we’re talking about reports that emerged last week that Lyft rebuffed General Motors’ efforts to buy the Uber competitor. The attempt by GM is not unprecedented: Volkswagen has invested $300 in European ride-sharing start-up Gett, while BMW provided $5 million in venture funding to Scoop, a new, San Francisco-based service.

In fact, GM already owns a stake in Lyft, having spent $500 million early this year to purchase 9% of the company. As part of the deal, GM’s President Dan Ammann now sits on Lyft’s board. Despite an earlier round of funding that topped $1 billion, and often going head-to-head in promotions and pricing, Lyft still trails Uber by a wide margin.

For more on the story, see the video above.