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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday June 21 2017, @02:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the bye-bye dept.

The New York Times reports:

Travis Kalanick stepped down Tuesday as chief executive of Uber, the ride-hailing service that he helped found in 2009 and built into a transportation colossus, after a shareholder revolt made it untenable for him to stay on at the company.

Mr. Kalanick's exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber's investors, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details were confidential.

Earlier on Tuesday, five of Uber's major investors demanded that the chief executive resign immediately. The investors included one of Uber's biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber's board. The investors made their demand for Mr. Kalanick to step down in a letter delivered to the chief executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with knowledge of the situation.

[...] Mr. Kalanick's troubles began earlier this year after a former Uber engineer detailed what she said was sexual harassment at the company, opening the floodgates for more complaints and spurring internal investigations. In addition, Uber has been dealing with an intellectual property lawsuit from Waymo, the self-driving car business that operates under Google's parent company, and a federal inquiry into a software tool that Uber used to sidestep some law enforcement.

Uber has been trying to move past its difficult history, which has grown inextricably tied to Mr. Kalanick. In recent months, Uber has fired more than 20 employees after an investigation into the company's culture, embarked on major changes to professionalize its workplace, and is searching for new executives including a chief operating officer.

According to The Register:

Kalanick led Uber into fights on many fronts. The company had a strategy of entering markets without regard to regulation, earning it lawsuits all over the world. During one such lawsuit, Uber breached privacy laws. The company also stands accused of stealing self-driving car technology and deliberately targeting government officials who sought to investigate it.

The BBC notes:

Surely the most dramatic fall from grace the start-up world has ever seen, a scalp so big it will have chief executives across this city sitting bolt upright, and thinking: "If Travis can get booted out of Uber... no-one is safe."

What started out as a PR inconvenience has left the company without, to name just a few, a chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief technology officer and chief financial officer. Uber is in tatters, engulfed by its own aggression.

Mr Kalanick embodied his company's prevailing attitude: success at all costs. It saw Uber dominate the ride-sharing world, his chutzpah enabling the company to attract investment so effectively that last year Uber alone raised more money than the entire UK start-up scene.

But in doing so he didn't play fair. He created a company that deceived local regulators, neglected the well-being of employees, wound-up drivers, troubled investors, obtained a rape victim's medical records and allegedly stole trade secrets from a rival.

See also: c|net


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday June 21 2017, @03:01PM (2 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 21 2017, @03:01PM (#529047)

    (holy crap, how is it still running?)

    Dude. Its a taxi company. Ya ever seen the classic late 70s TV shitcom? You only need about ten warm-ish bodies to run an entire taxi company. And a lot of crappy bowdler-ized for broadcast TV jokes. This is a variety of the "... on the internet" business plans where you need a taxi company and like one smartass webmaster/IT dude and there you go.

    You want to see something creepy thats tangentially on topic? Check out Marilu Henner. She hasn't aged much since 1980. Thats like 40 years ago. If there is such a thing as eternal vampires.... I can see why rich people believe in the technological singularity, due to the power of modern pills and plastic surgery I swear that Henner looks younger today than in the 90s.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday June 21 2017, @04:23PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday June 21 2017, @04:23PM (#529083) Journal

    You also need the 'foreign' guy who says "Tank you berry much" a lot.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @04:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @04:34PM (#529094)

    Henner looked good in the 80s, now she looks creepy. Without knowing about plastic surgery and how it looks I would probably have guessed she is now only 15-30 years older than in the 80s.