Handful of interesting points:<p>a) Scoot raised something like $47,000,000. This article reports a cash and stock deal of $25,000,000.<p>b) Scoot launched in 2012 and spent their first 6 years renting mopeds and electric bikes, only recently launching what we all think of as "scooters" in late 2018.<p>c) The founder illustrates what Scoot saw as a gigantic problem in the space - theft and vandalism (1). He then wrote a follow-up post a few months later illustrating their solution - a proprietary lock adapter from their bike sharing network (2). I wonder if we'll see this technology rolled out @ Bird?<p>(1) <a href="https://medium.com/@mbkeating/what-we-learned-from-our-first-month-of-operating-scoot-kicks-dcd9a677db15" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@mbkeating/what-we-learned-from-our-first...</a><p>(2) <a href="https://medium.com/@mbkeating/one-of-our-kicks-was-stolen-last-weekend-8cfdf94979b6" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@mbkeating/one-of-our-kicks-was-stolen-la...</a>
Maybe they'll finally have the resources to make a proper app. For context, they went web view -> react native, and both iterations were among the worst apps I've used on an Apple device. It's a shame that companies don't take pride in the UX they create, but I guess they were probably eng resource constrained.
They city of SF has said Bird can't layoff any Scoot employees if they want to take over Scoot's permit.<p>>Among the conditions SFMTA asked of Bird is one Scoot employees may be >celebrating: Reiskin told Bird it must maintain the “same or greater number of >employees that Scoot has employed during the pilot” to also operate at the “same >or higher” compensation, including benefits, and to maintain Scoot’s commitment >to labor harmony in San Francisco.<p><a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/the-city/formerly-ousted-e-scooter-company-bird-purchases-rival-scoot-and-acquires-sf-permit-in-the-process/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sfexaminer.com/the-city/formerly-ousted-e-scoote...</a><p>Not sure how enforceable this is.
The purchase price was apparently about $25M, which I'm assuming is not a 10x exit (the exact amount they raised is unclear).<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Katie_Roof/status/1138913835606089729" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Katie_Roof/status/1138913835606089729</a>
$25 million sounds pretty low. Guess they just bought the existing stock scooters and the SF permit? It would extremely funny if the city didn't allow for the permit to be transferred :P
Please tell me they'll keep the Scoot branding. Scoot's brand is much better than Bird's, and in particular the red Scoot mopeds are quite distinctive and fun whereas black Bird ones wouldn't be.
Can we talk about just how patently ridiculous this headline sounds? Lots of adults involved, lots of smart people, lots of big money, seven figure contracts.<p>Bird acquires scoot: <a href="https://gfycat.com/genuineseverefruitfly" rel="nofollow">https://gfycat.com/genuineseverefruitfly</a>
I love Scoot but I'm still peeved at the way Bird handled rolling their scooters out in SF. I trusted Scoot to do the right thing when it came to engaging the city and making sure they use public infrastructure responsibly, but I have none of that trust for Bird. I guess we'll see how it goes, but maybe it's just time to buy my own GenZe :(
I don't understand how Scoot's permits to operate dockless scooters / bikes / whatever relates to the Lyft lawsuit over their exclusive right to operate in SF. Not a lawyer but the wording I saw seems like Lyft is likely to prevail there.
Thank god, scoot had the worst scooters. The best locks though. Their scooters at most went 12mph while others go 15+. Hopefully, they bring those bird scoots back to sf.