As widely expected, Chinese search giant Baidu has confirmed "a strategic investment and co-operation agreement" with Uber.
No details emerged about the scale of the investment, widely reported to be $600m but never confirmed.
Interestingly, the deal is not limited to China. In response to emailed questions, Baidu's head of international relations, Kaiser Kuo, told Tnooz:
"The cooperation, I can say, is global and not limited to China, though China obviously will be a large component of it and its main short-term focus."
The co-operation will "enable users of Baidu Map and Mobile Baidu [it's flagship mobile search app] to connect easily with Uber driver-partners"
And Uber will "leverage Baidu’s strengths in mobile search, mobile mapping and app distribution."
The strength in these three areas is impressive - its mobile search has over 500 million monthly active users, Baidu Map has over 240 million monthly active users and it distributes an average of 160 million apps a day.
The prominence of Baidu Maps in the release comes 24 hours after it was announced that HERE - Nokia's mapping and location intelligence business- would power all Baidu maps other than mainland China.
Chinese users will be able to access HERE maps of the world while in China but also when they are on their travels - Baidu claims that it is the first Chinese company to offer location-based services to locals travelling abroad.
Its rivals TenCent and Alibaba both spent big on mapping technology this year - TenCent's spent $187m deal to buy 11% of NavInfo while Alibaba completed its takeover of AutoNavi.
Kuo said that Baidu Maps for China is self-developed, adding that Uber is already using this in some of its locations in China.
In August Baidu launched a search engine Brazil, its first foray into western languages.
The Nokia tie-up could be a significant part of Baidu's global plans, as much as the Baidu tie-up could be part of Uber's global plans. Or vice-versa, perming any two from three. As usual with China, anything seems possible.