The ridesharing business can be tough, especially as traditional modes of transit garner less and less enthusiasm from local officials and self-driving vehicles not only loom on the horizon, but prowl our streets. It’s not hard to imagine a player in the field being in a bit of a financial bind, even to the point of wanting to sell themselves for some security, or simply to get out of the game. That has been just the case for Lyft recently, but they’ve apparently had a rough go of trying to find a buyer. They have thus far been through a laundry list of potential suitors and had some serious talks, but nobody has given them a written offer for their troubles, leaving them to continue struggling against tough competition like Uber.
Lyft thought they may have had some luck in talks with General Motors, but ultimately had nothing to show for their chats with their largest investor. When they talked to Uber about a deal, they ended up riling the suspicions of Chinese ridesharing service Didi Chuxing, spurring them to merge with their local chapter of Uber and ultimately leaving Lyft out in the cold. Things apparently didn’t go much better in talks with Apple, Google, and Amazon, all of whom could have potentially benefited quite nicely from the deal. Google would have had a fleet of vehicles to put their self-driving tech into at launch, as would Apple, whereas Amazon could have made their entry into the ridesharing biz.
According to anonymous sources, some of these suitors actually approached Lyft first, but talks still ended up falling through. The far-flung future fate of the second largest ridesharing business in the United States is still unknown for the moment, but they do have $1.4 billion to ride out the rough weather on. For the time being, they will reportedly continue with business as usual, though they’re fairly likely to continue looking for somebody to buy them out. Investment bank Qatalyst Partners, known for helping companies find buyers, is reportedly still working with Lyft on turning their finances around, though after so many rejections, they may have to look into other methods besides finding a buyer.