Lyft Completes Its $197 Million Acquisition Of Europe's Freenow

Lyft has received nan required regulatory clearance to finalize its acquisition of nan European app-based taxi institution Freenow. First announced backmost successful April, Lyft’s astir $197 cardinal statement pinch BMW and Mercedes-Benz allows nan institution to grow extracurricular of North America for nan first time.

Freenow’s work will proceed to run arsenic normal, but Bloomberg reports that users will beryllium prompted to download nan Lyft app erstwhile travelling successful nan US aliases Canada, and vice versa for Lyft riders successful 1 of nan 9 countries aliases 180 European cities Freenow presently operates in. Eventually you’ll beryllium capable to book a taxi connected either app without having to switch.

According to Bloomberg, nary of nan astir 600 Freenow employees’ jobs are astatine risk, and while 50 percent of taxi bookings successful Europe apparently still hap offline, nan caller partners judge location is simply a desire for that to displacement much towards an online majority. In 2024, taxis accounted for 90 percent of Freenow’s income and they will stay nan "backbone" of its business going forward.

As good arsenic seamless app integration successful nan future, Freenow said successful April that riders tin expect much accordant pricing, faster matching and caller features arsenic a consequence of nan Lyft acquisition. Lyft is nan second-largest ride-hailing institution successful nan US, trailing Uber, and has been looking to present much autonomous vehicles into its web from 2025 onwards aft partnering pinch Mobileye and respective different companies past year.