The massive data breach last year involving 57 million user accounts at Uber, which was revealed this week, now has a new twist to it.
According to the company, it disclosed information on the breach to Japanese investor SoftBank before informing regulators or going public with the announcement.
Uber is in talks with SoftBank for a SoftBank-led consortium of investors to put in $10 billion (£7.52 billion) and buy fresh stock and existing shares totaling at least 14 percent of the ride-hailing company at at a total valuation of $68.5 billion.
Uber to Clear Way for SoftBank-led $10 Billion Investment Round
In a statement, Uber said:
“We informed SoftBank that we were investigating a data breach, consistent with our duty to disclose to a potential investor, even though our information at the time was preliminary and incomplete.”
“We also made clear that our forensic investigation was ongoing. Once our internal inquiry concluded and we had a more complete understanding of the facts, we disclosed to regulators and our customers in a very public way.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the ride-hailing company’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi learned of the breach more than two months before the public disclosure earlier this week.
Uber has neither disclosed the date of the conversation with SoftBank, nor the date on which Khosrowshahi learned of the breach.
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