Uber Reportedly in Talks with Careem to Merge in Middle East

Uber and Careem are in preliminary talks to combine their services in the Middle East

According to a report from Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. and Careem Networks FZ are in talks to join forces and combine the Middle Eastern legs of their ride-hailing services, no doubt as a way to put an end to what has been a long and expensive rivalry between the two. According to Bloomberg's sources, the companies have been discussing several potential deal structures but have hitherto been unable to arrive at a consensus.

"In its discussions with Careem, Uber has said that it would need to own more than half of the combined company, if not buy Careem outright, according to the people familiar with the talks", Bloomberg reports. While there is no official statement from Uber, Maha Abouelenein, a Careem spokesperson said the company is "only getting started" on their expansion plans while declining to comment on the talks with Uber.

It's also worth mentioning that Careem have set themselves up to be the local darling in the ride-hailing app space with their positioning as being a community first service. Their marketing campaigns also included a tongue in cheek snark towards Uber back in 2016.

Careem is a considerable success in the region and is currently in talks with investors to raise $500 million, which will potentially value it at roughly $1.5 billion. Earlier this year, the company also held talks with banks about a potential IPO, though they have since said they aren't actively considering it.