Uber's board agreed Sunday to a deal opening the way for a consortium of investors led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank to buy a significant stake in the ride-hailing company, moving Uber toward going public, according to press reports.
The Softbank-led consortium's investment in Uber could be worth up to $10 billion, Reuters reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Under the agreement, SoftBank and its investors would buy at least 14 percent of Uber through a mix of newly created and existing stocks, according to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Thursday that Uber would go public in 2019.
In the deal reached Sunday, the reports said, SoftBank would buy $1 billion in new stock valued at Uber's current valuation of $68.5 billion, but the majority of the stake purchase will come from the Softbank consortium buying current Uber shares from investors to reach the 14 percent mark.
The purchase of existing shares would be conducted through a tender-offer process, which could take at least a month to finalize. During that process, a price will be set for the stocks to be sold, the New York Times reported.
Uber and SoftBank did not respond to a request for comment.
SoftBank's agreement would also pacify opposing sides on Uber's board, which includes founder Travis Kalanick. He resigned in June after months of scandals and controversy within the San Francisco-based company.
As part of the deal, Benchmark, an early Uber investor which has a seat on the board, would suspend a lawsuit against Kalanick, and drop it once the tender offer is completed. In return, Kalanick would allow directors to vote on his selected board appointees in the future, according to the Wall Street Journal. Kalanick has control over two seats beyond his own.
SoftBank, which owns shares in other ride-hailing companies outside the United States, would receive two seats on Uber's board once the offer is complete, according to the New York Times.
