Reuters
Shares of the ride-hailing company Lyft gained as much as 5.32% Monday after Gett announced that it would partner with the company for its corporate clients in the U.S. beginning next year.
“This development reinforces Gett’s strategy to build a profitable company focused on the corporate transportation sector, a market worth $1 trillion each year,” Gett CEO Dave Waiser said in a press release Monday.
Tel Aviv-based Gett serves over 15,000 companies, which includes a third of the Fortune 500, the company said.
The announcement comes the same day that Gett said it would be shutting down Juno, the ride-sharing operation it acquired for $200 million in 2017 as its New York arm. The shutdown is effective Monday at 6 p.m. in New York, according to an email message Juno sent to customers.
Closing Juno is the result of Gett’s “increased focus on the corporate transportation sector and the enactment of misguided regulations in New York City earlier this year,” the company said in a press release.
Both Lyft and Juno sued New York City in February, asking the court to delay implementing a legally mandated minimum wage for ride-hailing drivers. The $17.22 minimum wage that city council approved in December 2018 would make it impossible for the companies to compete with Uber, according to the filing.
By partnering with Lyft, Gett will be able to get access to its network across the US, and Lyft will gain corporate accounts, according to the press release. Gett also noted that it plans to be “operationally profitable at a Group level in December of this year.”
Juno will pay its drivers in full for all rides completed by the service end-date, and all Juno riders will be invited to join Lyft, the company said.
Lyft is down 37.5% year-to-date.
