Uber not buying Ola, says company

"We would like to state that the article, attributed to an 'unnamed source' is completely false, misleading, malicious and planted in the said newspaper with the intent of causing harm to the Ola brand and creating confusion among our stakeholders," Ola said in a statement.

"We are shocked and dismayed at the lack of journalistic ethics in carrying the story, despite our repeated denial to the reporter and the publication's editorial representatives. We also had received a verbal confirmation that the report shall not be carried given the company's denial. We will initiate appropriate legal action and seek redressal and compensation for the damage caused to us by this irresponsible reporting from the newspaper," Ola said.

Avnish Bajaj, Managing Director of Matrix Partners India, one of Ola’s key and early investors, and also one of the board members said, "It cannot be further from the truth that Uber is attempting to take a stake in Ola. No such discussions have taken place and even if we are approached anytime in the future, we have no intentions of selling to Uber. We believe we are pulling away and continue to gain market share over Uber in India. With just one category like Ola Micro alone on its path to becoming larger than Uber, we can only see the momentum continuing to build in the same direction. We also hear this from employees who are leaving Uber for various jobs including wanting to work with Ola or other companies. We have seen Uber in India reacting to Ola’s growth with moves not seen elsewhere globally - be it front page advertising, dramatic fare cuts and rapid and knee jerk changes in categories - so one can only surmise that they are worried about their market share declining. We are clearly in the winning horse with Ola and have no doubts about its future."