Daimler and BMW mulling partial sale of jointly run mobility services – reports
electrive / manager magazine
A partial sale of BMW and Daimler's mobility service joint ventures looks increasingly likely, reports Sebastian Schaal for specialist website electrive. "Most recently, there were various pieces of news about the Now group, which was created in the course of last year's reorganisation, which indicated that Daimler and BMW were considering selling different divisions," Schaal writes. According to manager magazine, US rival Uber has offered more than 1 billion euros for the FreeNow joint venture, which focuses on chauffeur and taxi services. The magazine said Daimler wanted to sell, but BMW CEO Oliver Zipse hadn't made a decision yet. Daimler already confirmed the partial sale of the moovel mobility joint venture to a Deutsche Bahn subsidiary.
Daimler CEO Ola Källenius recently said the mobility services units must become financially independent, but the carmakers have been struggling to make money with the units, Schaal writes. BMW and Daimler unveiled their combined ride-hailing, parking and electric car charging business in early 2019 in a bid to counter new rivals like Google and Uber. According to press reports, however, the carmakers had already become increasingly sceptical of the business a year ago.
