BMW takes full control of car-sharing platform DriveNow

FRANKFURT, Germany - German high-end carmaker BMW has bought partner Sixt's share in car-sharing platform DriveNow, stoking speculation a merger with a competing service from Daimler may lie ahead.
BMW takes full control of car-sharing platform DriveNow
The Munich-based group will pay Sixt some €209m ($259m) for its 50% stake in DriveNow.

Regulators are expected to approve or reject the deal by June.

"With DriveNow as a wholly-owned subsidiary, we have all options for continued strategic development of our services," BMW board member Peter Schwarzenbauer said in a statement.

Sixt's stake in the service had long been seen as the main hurdle to merging it with Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler's rival Car2Go platform.

Launched in 2011, DriveNow offers a fleet of around 6,000 BMW and Mini vehicles in 13 European cities, with more than one million customers on its books.

Meanwhile, Car2Go's 14,000-strong fleet - mostly made up of Daimler's ultra-compact Smart cars - serves 2.6 million users in 25 cities spread across three continents.

Source: AFP

 
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