(Lyft President John Zimmer.Getty Images)

Lyft President John Zimmer blasted reports that the ride-hailing company is shopping itself around, disputing a series of recent news stories saying that Lyft had failed to find a buyer after talking to six different companies.

"Lyft is not seeking a buyer," Zimmer told Business Insider.

"Getting approached and then having it characterized as us wanting to sell the business and failing to do so is a large mischaracterization," he said. "If the company is approached, it doesn't mean the company is looking."

Zimmer did not explicitly deny that acquisition discussions with other companies may have occurred, and he refused to provide any details about the reported talks, which The New York Times and Bloomberg said included Amazon, GM, and Uber among others.

But he insisted that the reports had grossly mischaracterized the situation and that they "crossed a line," forcing the company to break its typical silence on M&A rumors.

Multiple offers

The No. 2 player in the fast-growing ride-hailing business, Lyft is locked in a costly and bitter battle for market share with Uber, which has vastly exceeded Lyft's fundraising by billions of dollars.

Rumors that Lyft had been up for sale started in June when The Wall Street Journal reported that the company had hired Qatalyst Partners, a Silicon Valley firm with a reputation for orchestrating sales like the LinkedIn-Microsoft deal. Companies typically hire bankers to find buyers for a business, or in the case of an unsolicited offer, to compare the offer to the price others might be willing to pay.

Lyft declined to comment on Qatalyst, but Zimmer stressed to Business Insider that the company has never been actively looking for a buyer. It's already had acquisition offers throughout its history as a company, and Zimmer says that the company is obligated to review them.

"That's happened multiple times throughout our business. It's actually more of a normal course of business than has been portrayed, and of course we have to review anything that's of legitimate interest," Zimmer said.

The rumors of takeover attempts reached a peak on Friday after a New York Times article suggested that it had made approaches and had talks with six different companies, including Amazon, Uber, and Google, yet still failed to find a buyer.

A Bloomberg article on Friday also said that Uber would not pay more than $2 billion to buy the company, well below the rumored $9 billion price tag that Recode reported and below its current $5.5 billion valuation.

The New York Times told Business Insider that it stands by its story. Bloomberg declined to comment.