Grab CEO’s epiphany at 30,000 feet: taking down an Uber Goliath

SINGAPORE (Nov 2): It was on a late July flight home to Singapore when Anthony Tan grasped the potential calamity in news that his biggest ally, Didi Chuxing, was about to buy out arch-rival Uber’s Chinese business.

The stunned Grab co-founder knew better than to celebrate the vanquishing of an enemy. Unfettered by a costly battle for China, the world’s most valuable startup would now pivot to his Southeast Asian backyard. And with Didi and Uber Technologies Inc. taking stakes in each other, it spelled trouble for a global alliance forged to keep the US ride-hailing giant in check.

Distraught, he took to his laptop and spent the next hour hammering out a rallying cry -- and warning -- to his 1,500 employees. Sure enough, soon after the deal, his American rival began redeploying resources and engineers to markets from India to Latin America, while rolling out new features and services from Singapore to Hanoi.

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