Japanese tech titan SoftBank has approached Uber about taking a multi-billion dollar stake in the ride-sharing company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank has already invested in three ride-sharing companies in Asia: GrabTaxi in Singapore, Ola in India and Didi Chuxing Technology in China, the report noted.

According to the report, the sources said SoftBank’s talks with Uber were preliminary and any deal would likely need to wait for the ride-sharing company to hire a new chief executive, which was likely weeks away.

On Monday, Grab said it expected to raise about $2.5 billion in fresh funds from Didi Chuxing, Softbank and others to bolster dominance in the region and grow its fledging mobile payments business.

For more about the potential deal, see the Wall Street Journal article.

—Saheli Roy Choudhury contributed to this article.

Source: cnbc china
SoftBank reportedly seeking Uber stake valued at billions