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Ride-share battle ends with Didi buying Uber China operations

AFP, Beijing
CHINESE ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing will take over the China operations of its US rival Uber, it said Monday, ending a ferocious battle for market share that cost both firms billions.
In exchange for the Uber China assets, Uber and its Chinese partners will receive shares equivalent to 20 percent of Didi Chuxing, a statement said.
The combined Chinese firm will be valued at $35 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Since Uber launched its China operations little more than two years ago both companies have spent billions of dollars on subsidies for drivers and passengers in China, as well as trading vitriolic accusations, as they fought for dominance in the potentially lucrative market.
But now their founders will swap public acrimony for seats on each other's boards, with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick joining Didi's board of directors, and Didi's founder Cheng Wei getting a seat at Uber's top table.
In the Didi statement Cheng said the two firms "have learned a great deal from each other over the past two years in China's burgeoning new economy".
Earlier this year Uber said it lost $1 billion annually in China, and Didi was thought to be dropping similar amounts of money.
A lengthy post on Kalanick's verified
Facebook page Monday called Uber's battle in China a "big, bold idea" and "one of the most rewarding experiences I've had as an entrepreneur".
"Most people thought we were naive, crazy - or both" because the firm was "a young American business entering a country where most US internet companies had failed to crack the code", he said.
His at times elegiac farewell praised the company's China team as "the smartest
and most entrepreneurial sons and daughters of China" who were "nobly serving” China's cities.
But he went on: "As an entrepreneur, I've learned that being successful is about listening to your head as much as following your heart."
A sustainable business was "only possible with profitability", he said, and the merger would free up "substantial resources", while Uber will become Didi's
largest shareholder.
He signed off the post "with much UberChina love".
The deal comes days after Chinese authorities announced new rules governing ride-sharing, making clear for the first time that they may operate legally in the country. The new rules will also forbid ride-sharing platforms from operating below cost, possibly restricting their scope to offer subsidies.
Rides in major cities with Uber and Didi have often cost significantly less than regular cab fares due to the payments, and many drivers work for both companies at the same time.
One user on China's Twitter-like Weibo service lamented the merger, saying: "This is meant to tell us that ride-sharing is now legal and we are going to raise the price."
One Didi driver was reluctant to believe the merger Monday. "If it is true, the allowance offered by Didi or Uber now will certainly decrease," the man, surnamed Su, told AFP.
Didi, which claims almost 90 percent of China's ride-hailing market, said last month it had recently raised $7.3 billion -- $ 1 billion of which came from Apple -in one of the world's largest private equity financing rounds.
As part of the merger Didi Chuxing will also take a stake in Uber, with reports saying it will invest $1 billion, valuing the US firm at $68 billion.