Two major ride hailing companies, international player Uber and home-grown company Careem, are reportedly in talks for a potential merger, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday 3 July.
The report cites three people familiar with the matter outlining how a potential merger will go. The companies are supposedly working on two options and under one of them, Careem's current management would manage the new combined business while retaining one or both of the companies' local brands, and under the second plan, Uber would acquire Careem.
In discussions with Careem, Uber has said that it would need to own more than half of the combined company, if not it would buy Careem outright, according to the report.
At this stage, it is unclear how this potential merger will affect customers in the UAE as if it went through, there would be no potential competition in the sector and a monopoly has its own pros and cons.