Uber Technologies Inc. is in preliminary talks to combine with rival Middle Eastern ride-hailing service Careem Networks, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Details of the deal, which could either be a merger or a majority ownership stake, are still being hammered out, Bloomberg said. Dubai-based Careem is currently attempting to raise funds at a valuation of about $1.5 billion, the report said. San Francisco-based Uber has recently ended two costly regional rivalries, by merging its Russian operations with Yandex.Taxi last year, and selling its Southeast Asia operations in exchange for a stake in Singapore-based Grab in March.