Uber Reportedly In Talks to Acquire Bird Or Lime

Scooters are hot.

As if we needed further confirmation of that, The Information reported over the weekend that Uber is reportedly in talks with scooter darlings Bird and Lime to acquire one of the companies in a deal that could involve billions of dollars.

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The news isn’t entirely shocking considering that Bird and Lime can only raise so much to keep growing their businesses, and all three companies appear to be facing supply constraints.

And let’s not forget that Uber is already an investor in Lime. In July, our own Savannah Dowling wrote about how Uber was jumping in with GV in an investment into the scooter heavyweight. That $335 million round took Lime’s aggregate funding to $467 million and its valuation to a reported $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, Bird has raised a total of $415 million. At the time of its latest raise, a $300 million Series C in June, its pre-money valuation was $1.7 billion.

Uber—which has indicated it plans to go public in 2019—clearly recognizes the potential in the scooter space.

In August, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told the Financial Times that a shift to focus on bikes and scooters  was in the (unprofitable) company’s future. Then in October,  Uber officially launched its JUMP scooters on the streets of Santa Monica, California.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias