Yesterday, Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche and Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick met on stage at Axel Springer NOAH. It was a two-day conference in Berlin that included venture capitalists and technology companies.
As Uber’s Kalanick said, “Cars are not going away soon and companies like Uber are not going to be making them.”
Zetsche said, “We are competitors, of course. There might be many areas where we are competitors in the future,” but then he added that they are also friends.
Uber’s private market valuation has recently soared for a number of reasons. They just announced a $3.5 billion investment by a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and they have partnered with automaker Toyota Motor Corp.
When asked if the two would like to create a partnership with Daimler considering a stake in Uber, they explained that this is not in the plans.
Uber just entered its 467th city in Accra, Ghana. When asked about profitability and going public, Kalanick said, “We are going to IPO as late as possible.”