Little by little, BMW and Daimler are taking apart their business together. The two German giants joined forces a few years back, creating a conglomerate of businesses aiming at making travel in busy cities a lot easier. Among them you could find companies like FreeNow and ParkNow, each with a different goal. FreeNow is a ride-sharing app, similar to what Uber and Lyft. Earlier this year, Uber was allegedly interested in buying it.
But while that rumor is still pending, it looks like BMW and Daimler are set to sell yet another part of their venture together: ParkNow. According to Bloomberg, quoting sources close to the matter, the two companies are now looking to part ways with ParkNow, as they are trying to focus all their efforts on saving the car-making business. The ParkNow app is rather useful in certain parts of the world and could bring in some good revenue.
The app finds a parking spot for you, searching both on-street parking and in parking lots. Initially, the concept was introduced in Amsterdam in the 2000s, when you could phone parking lots to check if they have an open spot for you, before arriving at your destination. ParkNow took things to a whole new level though and it is operational in over 1,000 cities around the world, according to its own estimates.
The process will be handled by advisory firm Rothschild & Co. and BMW and Daimler are expecting to get several hundred million euros for the deal, according to Bloomberg’s sources. This would be yet another example of a failed attempt from traditional car makers to switch to mobility services, after the failure recorded by FreeNow and other similar ventures from GM or Ford with their Maven or Chariot programs.
