China's biggest taxi app Didi will acquire all assets of Uber's standalone Chinese operations, getting a stake in its global business as well.
The widely rumoured deal was confirmed this morning.
Uber Technologies, the parent company of Uber and a significant investor in Uber China, will end up with a 17.7% economic interest in Didi, said the statement. Uber China's other investors, including Baidu, get a 2.3% stake in Didi.
Incidentaly, the move now means that Didi is the only business in which China's three internet behemoths - Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba
Didi also gets a stake in Uber with its founder Travis Kalanick joining the Didi board.
The plan is for the Uber China brand to continue to operate independently, although Didi hopes to integrate its "managerial and technological" expertise with its own to better serve China's transportation industry.
Didi will now work with China's regulators on the development of ridesharing and mobility, and "will continue to work with global partners in connecting local resources to create the best possible cross-border ridesharing experience for their users."
Jean Liu, president of Didi, added that Didi "will also continue to expand its international strategy."
The confirmation comes a few days after China's Ministry of Transportation effectively legalised ridesharing and other services.
The consolidation of the two leading players in the world's biggest markets follows on from other recent mergers in the sector - last week in Europe, Daimler-owned MyTaxi merged with Hailo while late last year Rocket Internet-backed Easytaxi merged with Tappsi to create the leading taxi app business in Latin America.
There are also a range of interesting investment and commercial partnerships now that Didi has a stake in Uber and vice versa. Where will Apple's recent $1 billion investment in Didi end up? Will Uber's global partnership with Baidu have any impact on Rides Everywhere?
Whatever the short, medium and long-term outcome, chances are that while the China tie-up may be the taxi-app sector's biggest deal to date, there will be more to come.
Related reading from Tnooz:
Make peace, not losses – Didi and Uber backers talk truce (July 2016)
Uber China morphs into end-to-end travel app (June 2016)
Global rideshare alliance gets bigger as Ola and GrabTaxi join in (Dec 2015)