Allana Akhtar

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Lyft, the second-most valuable ride-hailing service in the country, may have attempted to sell itself to Apple, Google, Amazon, General Motors and even ride-sharing rivals Uber and Didi Chuxing, according to The New York Times.

"There is no shortage of conflicting rumors in our industry and we are not commenting on them," Alexandra LaManna, a spokesperson for Lyft, said to USA TODAY.

Reports that Lyft is looking to be acquired have sprung up a few times this summer. The San Francisco, Calif.-based company hired Qatalyst Partners, a boutique investment bank that specializes in arranging mergers acquisitions, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Lyft’s most serious suitor was General Motors, according to the Times. GM invested $500 million in the company earlier this year. The two are also slated to test a fleet of driverless cars within the year, both companies have said.

Lyft isn’t in trouble yet due to a cash cushion of $1.4 billion, but it is not making a profit, reports the Times.

The company was valued at $5.5 billion as of January, which is dwarfed by Uber’s $60-billion-plus valuation. Didi Chuxing was worth $28 billion as of June.

Lyft’s desire to find a takeover partner suggests a struggle for the “gig-economy” service to become profitable. Paying its drivers can become costly. Much of Lyft's revenue goes to drivers, and it often pays drivers more than it costs customers to use the app, according to leaked documents provided to Bloomberg.

Investing in autonomous vehicles could be a solution. Uber said this week it would offer Pittsburgh riders a driverless car alternative by the end of the year. The ride-hailing giant also announced it acquired self-driving research startup, Otto.

“If we don’t get the (autonomous car) software thing nailed, we’re not going to be around much longer,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told USA TODAY on Thursday.