Volkswagen and Gett
Matthias Müller (left), then Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, and Shahar Waiser, founder and head of the travel agent Gett, will announce a comprehensive cooperation in Berlin in summer 2016.
Düsseldorf It should be a large and comprehensive collaboration. Quit almost four years ago Volkswagen and the Israeli Ridesharing company Gett at it together with the major US competitors Uber and Lyft want to record. Volkswagen wanted to equip Gett drivers with group vehicles. Gett again promised, with his service, too Germany get. The VW group took over 20 percent of the Gett shares and put $ 300 million on the table.
But from the big plans in the end nothing came of it. Volkswagen and Gett are determined opponents today who will see each other again before a judge for the foreseeable future.
Gett has filed a lawsuit for damages against Volkswagen because the Wolfsburg-based automaker did not adhere to existing agreements. According to industry circles, the ridesharing company demands a three-digit million amount from Volkswagen as compensation.
After all, Volkswagen takes the claim for damages brought by Gett so seriously that it only recently published it Annual report for 2019 Mentioned. “In February 2020, Volkswagen AG (….) Filed a lawsuit by GT Gettaxi Ltd. delivered. The lawsuit alleges high claims for damages. Volkswagen will evaluate the claims and defend itself against them, ”said the VW report.
The Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer confirms receipt of the lawsuit, but does not want to comment on further details of the process. Gett is also reluctant to make public statements. The ridesharing company left an inquiry unanswered regarding the lawsuit filed against the Volkswagen Group.
The initially good relationship between Volkswagen and Gett cooled down very quickly after the cooperation agreement from summer 2016. As early as mid-2018, it became clear to Herbert Diess, the then new CEO, that the Wolfsburg-based group was no longer particularly interested in working with Gett.
The decision to cooperate had Diess’ predecessor Matthias Müller met. Ridesharing will move to the center of Volkswagen’s new “Mobility on Demand” business area, which the group wants to build as a second pillar alongside the classic automotive business, said Müller when the contract was signed. “With our investment in Gett, we now have access to a service from which people around the world can benefit,” promised the former CEO.
Gett accuses VW of “bogus investment”
But in December 2018, something like a preliminary end line already followed: Volkswagen almost completely wrote off its 20 percent stake in Gett. In the view of the Wolfsburg group planners, the shares had lost any value. Volkswagen, it was said in the group at the time, no longer believed that Gett could be a promising business model.
In the meantime, the VW Group had refilled another $ 80 million in another round of financing. But with the almost complete depreciation of the Gett shares it became clear that there would be no more money from Wolfsburg.
As it was said from industry circles, this is also supposedly the most important starting point for the Gett parent company GT Gettaxi Ltd. Action for damages brought in Cyprus. Accordingly, Gett accuses the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer in the first place that he no longer participated in further financing rounds.
In addition, it was said, Volkswagen had made a kind of “sham investment” with the acquisition of the 20 percent stake in Gett. The car company was only interested in understanding the technical processes of a ridesharing company. This is the only reason why VW employees were sent to Gett. Later, the Volkswagen Group used the knowledge it had acquired for its own subsidiary Moia, which set up a company with collective taxes in Hamburg and Hanover.
At Volkswagen, Gett’s claims for damages are emphatically rejected, corporate circles said. The Wolfsburg-based company is preparing for a year-long process. The place of jurisdiction is controversial because Gett filed his complaint in Cyprus and not in Germany.
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