Shares of CE Info Systems Ltd are in news amid a media report that suggested the parent company of MapMyIndia, which has 30 years of expertise in building digital maps in India, has filed a lawsuit against the IPO-bound Ola Electric, saying that the ride aggregator copied its proprietary data to build its own Ola Maps.
Ola Electric is accused of duplicating MapMyIndia’s API and SDKs, co-mingling, and reverse engineering licensed products, which is prohibited under the terms of their agreement signed in June 2021, a report by Forbes India suggested.
Bhavish Aggarwal's Ola Electric is looking to raise up to Rs 5,500 crore in fresh share sale while its promoters and selling shareholders are looking to offload up to 8,49,41,997 equity shares amounting to Rs 645.56 crore in an offer for sale (OFS). The IPO will opwn on August 2.
OLA recently launched OLA Maps. Though OLA two-wheelers still offer a choice of MapMyIndia maps to its customers, a certain market share loss due to this development cannot be ruled out, JM Financial said in a note last month. It, however, viewed the development as an isolated instance and expected the market share loss to be restricted to OLA 2Ws. "We otherwise see strong evidence for MMI to remain a dominant player in the Auto OEM segment," it said.
While OLA claimed its map was developed using open-source data and real-time information from the Ola fleet, CE Info Systems strongly refutes these claims, saying Ola’s development of Ola Maps did not rely solely on open map data, and alleges that Ola has misused confidential information and trade secrets belonging to MapMyIndia.
“You have duplicated our client’s API and SDKs from proprietary sources belonging to our client to build Ola Maps. It is firmly stated that our client’s exclusive data has been copied/derived by you to further your illegal motive and for your unjust commercial gains,” reads the legal document from CE Info Systems.
Higher competitive intensity (OLA Maps) and margin contraction due to higher share of hardware sales are key risks, JM Financial said in the June 26 note. Shares of CE Info Systems are up 1 per cent in the last one month and 22.30 per cent in 2024 so far.