News: Ola lays off 700 employees, shuts down TaxiForSure business

Employee Relations

Ola lays off 700 employees, shuts down TaxiForSure business

To gain impetus, Ola had acquired TaxiForSure in March 2015 for a deal worth $200 milion to prove its market leadership over crosstown rival Uber.
Ola lays off 700 employees, shuts down TaxiForSure business

In the recent move, Ola, one of the India’s largest cab-hailing services, had laid off 700 employees and closed its TaxiForSure business. 

To gain impetus, Ola had acquired TaxiForSure in March 2015 for a deal worth $200 milion to prove its market leadership over crosstown rival Uber. But since acquisition, Ola had intensified the process of closing TaxiForSure business across various cities in the country and integrated TaxiForSure's services in its own app. Ola has also been cutting down on its operations widely and amongst the employees who were laid off, many belong to TaxiForSure call centre and workers in business development units. 

The ongoing fracas for Ola, almost started last 6 months back, when Ola witnessed exit of several top notch executives including Pradeep Dodle, Head of cabs, under management; Harsha Kumar, Associate Vice- President, and Rushil Goel, Ola’s payments business head.  

As per the news reports, the total cost reduction is closed to 30 Crore a month after these layoffs. 

The mass retrenchment by Ola can be understood in the backdrop of merger of U.S.-based Uber Technologies with Didi Chuxing, also minor investor in Ola. The Uber has sold its china operations to Didi Chuxing and Didi in return will invest $1 billion in Uber. This deal has made Ola apprehensive about Didi’s further participation in Ola’s future fundraising rounds. 

This development will further intensify fight for market-share between Ola and Uber. Ola is further restructuring its business widely and bringing about change to prove its dominance in the market.

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Topics: Employee Relations

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