Hasta La Gadget!

The ridesharing service Lyft has announced that it’s finally expanding beyond its home market of the United States. The company has confirmed that the first international market of its ridesharing service is Toronto, Canada. The service will be going live there next month. Folks in the greater Toronto area and nearby Hamilton will be able to call a Lyft starting this December.

Riders will be able to hail normal Lyft cars that take up to four passengers. The other service options that will be available for customers in Canada include Lyft Plus, Lyft Premiere, Lyft Lux and Lyft Lux SUV.

Lyft has started signing up potential drivers for the service in Toronto. It’s not going to be easy pickings for the company there, though. It’s biggest rival Uber has already been live in Toronto for quite some time now, five years to be precise.

While Lyft is yet to expand beyond North America, this goes to show that the company isn’t opposed to the idea of international expansion. Lyft will likely go live in other cities across Canada in the near future as well.

It may also be launched in a handful of other countries at some point in the future. Even though its international expansion starts next month, Lyft will need a lot of time to service all of the markets where Uber has already established its presence.

Lyft’s First International Market Is Toronto, Canada , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Things were off to a rocky start for Uber this year as it just couldn’t shake off the scandals. That eventually developed into a leadership vacuum when Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down. How a new CEO now firmly in position, the company is trying to move past all that. It has lined up a new $10 billion investment deal which would further limit the role of the company’s founder and ex-CEO.

Uber confirmed today that a consortium comprising of Softbank and other partners will invest $1 billion in the company and buy $9 billion in shares from existing investors.

“Upon closing, it will help fuel our investments in technology and our continued expansion at home and abroad, while strengthening our corporate governance,” the company said in a statement.

He gets to retain his seat on the board and while he still has the power to appoint members to the two extra seats he controls, any changes will require majority approval of the board. These changes will also see key Uber investor Benchmark dropping its lawsuit against Kalanick.

This might help calm some Uber investors who have been concerned that Kalanick might try and claw his way back to the top job. It also brings a fresh infusion of cash to help Uber fund its future strategies.

The consortium will purchase $9 billion worth of shares from existing investors and shareholders. It will propose a price at which the stock will be bought and the shareholders will then have to decide if they want to sell and how many shares they’re willing to part with.

If SoftBank doesn’t get enough buyers it can either decide to raise the price of just walk away from the deal.

Uber’s $10 Billion Investment Deal Limits Founder And Ex-CEO’s Role , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

It was first reported back in 2014 that Amazon was thinking about developing a free version of its Amazon Prime Video streaming service. The company would have launched it as an ad-supported service instead. Amazon has denied the reports in the past but they have surfaced yet again. A new report claims that Amazon is developing a free ad-supported version of Amazon Prime Video.

Ad Age reports that Amazon is in talks with TV networks, media companies, and movie studios to get them to provide programming for the free service.

Previous reports have also claimed that the free service will exist alongside the paid option that’s also offered as part of the $99 per year Amazon Prime subscription. The new report doesn’t suggest anything to the contrary.

Amazon Prime Video users don’t really have to put up with advertisements right now. The company did put ads inside the National Football League games this season and it has also offered some opportunities for brand integrations. That’s about it.

A full-fledged ad-supported streaming service would be entirely different. Users will be able to access the content for free as long as they put up with the video ads. Such a service would enable Amazon to bring in a lot more viewers as competition between tech giants competing in the online video space heats up.

Amazon has not yet commented on this report. It’s unclear at this point in time when the company is planning to launch this service, if it is working on one at all.

Free Ad-Supported Amazon Prime Video Possibly Being Developed , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

She says she’s “going to explode” if he keeps buying gifts for their daughter.