'FreeNow' For Sale !

[Belker]

March 03, 2025 at 11:31AM EST.
Mercedes, BMW Are Said to Weigh Sale of FreeNow Taxi App.

(Bloomberg) -- Mercedes-Benz Group AG and BMW AG are making a fresh attempt to sell their jointly owned taxi-hailing app FreeNow, according to people familiar with the matter.

The carmakers, who both own just under 50%, are working with Lazard Inc. to gauge interest from potential buyers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are private. The business could fetch as much as €500 million ($521 million), they said.

Considerations are at an early stage and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction, the people said. Representatives for Mercedes and Lazard declined to comment. A spokesperson for BMW said FreeNow is doing well and exceeding its current targets, declining to comment on a potential sale.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/03/03/mercedes-bmw-are-said-to-weigh-sale-of-freenow-taxi-app/

[Rat Catcher]

Did you make an offer?

[watty]

A fresh attempt?

They were supposed to replace us with robotaxis.  Wonder who gets to keep all the driving data they've sucked out of us?

[Octavia1]

I agree wit merc on this one.. an its bean on me mind for sum time ... feenow will be baut out by uber ... do I welcome that scenario?
No .... I'll be fukin retiring


 

[watty]

The head company of FN only broke even last year and it took them 13 years to get there.  You'd wonder why they're selling now.  You'd think they'd want to keep the company now that it's potentially gonna make money?

[Rat Catcher]

It was never really intended to make a taxable profit. The goal was always developing mobility solutions to compliment the core businesses of manufacturing cars... the idea being that, in one way or another, traditional car sales methodologies would evolve into car sharing schemes, robo-taxis and such like. The problem for BMW and Daimler is that there's no real interim advantage as their cars are primarily focussed on middle class taxi users rather than working class taxi drivers.

[watty]

Could they not do both?  I guess they already own the intellectual property (IP) and could licence it to BMW/Daimler (big tax dodge!).  Then you'd have FN making a modest profit doing taxis & 'mobility solutions' whilst also making extra profit selling/renting assisted/self-driving on their private cars?

[Rat Catcher]

There certainly seems to be a shift to greater concentration on monetising the thing in recent years... perhaps upon realising that driverless cars are decades away and will most likely be predominately Chinese shite.

[silverbullet]

Did you make an offer?

Migrant?

[Taxi driver42]

If we all put in a fiver each we might have enough to buy it

[C5]

Government could buy it a ready made app that psv would be required to join and it would sort the rural taxi thing. They have the money it seems will able to give 100 million to Ukraine at the snap of a finger.

[mercenary for hire]

Freenow is finished.The Germans aren't selling it for no reason...they're not making enough money out of the app and they've got a lot of competition.Uber is still giving our discounts all year round.

All they're selling us a phone app that's useless without dirvers.They own fuk all taxis even though the ambassadors make it look like they do.If they didn't have those cars covered in branding all over the country the passengers would have forgotten about them by now.

[Octavia1]

I was lookin at Mercedes share price ( out of bordum)
It's the same price it was 30 yers ago... wud ya bother buyin that shit  .... BMW doin bit better .... tink they own feenow .... tings arnt great in Germany the past yer .... ther car industry has bean fuked since the diesel scandal an Chinese cars  an the hole country is takin a hit .... I tink ther depressed an stay in in case they get run over by isis or sumtin ..... anyway wen tings are bad tgese big  shops sell off subsidiaries  that arnt pulling ther weight .... the threat of Trump  tariffs isn't to be underestimated neither ....
 I hate to say it but I womudny be lookin forward to an uber monopoly ... 
 

[C5]

Things aren't great in Germany because of non profitable heavily subsidized EVs and the destroyed gas pipeline from Russia, there paying 4 time more for gas from the USA. Plus the millions of layabout migrants looking for handouts. Diesel gate is old news diesel is still the king of fuels.