Travis Kalanick Severs All Ties With Uber, Departing Board and Selling All His Shares

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will step down from the board, effective Dec. 31, and a spokesperson said Tuesday he has sold all of his stock in the ride-hailing company he co-founded 10 years ago. It's unclear how much Kalanick's total stake is worth, but the latest public filings show it's about $2.5 billion. In a statement Tuesday, Uber said Kalanick, 43, is leaving to "focus on his new business and philanthropic endeavors." Kalanick is launching latest venture, CloudKitchens, which rents out space to restaurateurs for delivery-based businesses. Uber did not say who will fill Kalanick's board seat. An Uber spokesperson said the ride-hailing company has "strong director candidates to put forward at the appropriate time." "Uber has been a part of my life for the past 10 years," Kalanick said in the release. "At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits. I'm proud of all that Uber has achieved, and I will continue to cheer for its future from the sidelines. I want to thank the board, Dara and the entire Uber team for everything they have done to further the Uber mission."

The rats flee the sinking ship

[Anonymous Coward]

With 2.5 billions he can become president.

She will soon be back in the win caves

[drnb]

Just don't have a wine cave fundraiser, or the shrew-like Librarian shall chastise you!

Until she needs to run for Senator again, then the will be asking billionaires for donations again. Hell if she got the nomination she'd probably be asking billionaires for donations again. Its not like she doesn't flip 180 degrees when convenient.

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[frank_adrian314159]

I see the Russian trolls are back again trying to discombobulate the Democratic primaries. It won't work this time, Sergei.

bad pun

[redback]

sounds like he got board.

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[olsmeister]

hitting the nog a little early, are we?

Yet another race to the bottom

[OverlordQ]

> Kalanick is launching latest venture, CloudKitchens, which rents out space to restaurateurs for delivery-based businesses.

So yet another venture that will hemorrhage money while making him rich and fucking over the 'independent contractors'

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[OverlordQ]

So we shouldn't regulate predatory payday loan business because "Hey people dont have to use it"

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[Jarwulf]

Nope, you don't get it. Side gigs like Uber are not just not inherently bad unlike some payday loans...they offer unprecented flexibility for some people. With Uber you have no douchebag supervisor, no timecards, you can take time off or work whenever you want as long as you want no questions asked. Its a beautiful thing and the nannies in Sacramento and Europe want to destroy it.

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[rtb61]

Filled with crime, raping passengers, which is why taxi were regulated in the first place.

Bailing out before the big kaboom and cashing in, they are playing the PR game of sort of hinting a firing to cover over his dumping shit stocks, wake up fuckers, if they were any fucking good he would still keep them. This public appearance of firing is a PR game, you got those shares, sell them now before he can because, down, down, down.

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[slashdotwannabe]

This is an issue you need to be comfortable with cognitive dissonance to be able to fully grasp.

One can be happy about small time entrepreneurs having a framework to make some extra cash while still decrying the fact that that the lion’s share of the proceeds from the labor goes into the app provider’s pocket, not the person actually performing the labor. These two things are not mutually exclusive.

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[LynnwoodRooster]

Personally, I would say yes, minimal and/or no regulating. I would also say that any such unsecured debt is 100% discharged via bankruptcy. Same with credit card debt. The only restriction I would have would be that the terms of the contract cannot be retroactively changed, and that include the interest rate. Disclose it up front; if someone still wants it, that's their issue.

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[alvinrod]

If you want to do something useful you should probably figure out what makes those kind of businesses necessary and try to fix that problem. Of course that's liable to be a ball of yarn no one wants to start tugging the threads of and it's just much easier to regular payday loan businesses and convince yourself that you've done a good thing instead.

Better yet, start your own payday loan business and offer better rates to take all of the business away from the predatory lenders. Then you can invest all of

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[chispito]

So we shouldn't regulate predatory payday loan business because "Hey people dont have to use it"

In what way are those related? If you decide to stop driving for Uber, you may. No matter how good or bad the arrangement is, there is nothing to pay off or anything legally binding that prevents you from getting a better job.

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[bill_mcgonigle]

So we shouldn't regulate predatory payday loan business because "Hey people dont have to use it"

You know a bank check bounce fee is much higher than a week's payday loan, right?

Talk about predatory. Oh, but the Financial Elite benefit, so nevermind - put their competition out of business.

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[dryeo]

Those financial elites here in Canada are having hard times. Only $46 billion in profits means only $15 billion to give out as bonuses (not including stock).
Won't someone think of the poor bankers.
https://www.thestar.com/opinio... [thestar.com]

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[mi]

So we shouldn't regulate predatory payday loan business because "Hey people dont have to use it"

As a matter of fact, yes, we shouldn't.

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[micheas]

Most of the regulations of payday lenders are that they aren't allowed to lie in their advertisements. Truth In Lending is one of the things that PayDay lenders spend a lot of time fighting against.

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[phalse phace]

Don't like it? Turn off the app and stop ruining it for those who want to earn a little flexible side hustle and understand that Uber never claimed or set out to be a source of primary income. If you're a single mother with 5 kids trying to rely on Uber exclusively you're doing it wrong. A job doesn't owe you a middle class salary and platinum healthcare just by virtue of existing.

Actually, if you look at the marketing Uber ran years ago [ispionage.com], they did tell you that if you drove for Uber, you'd "make great money."

Screen grabs [imgur.com] of the various ads Uber ran touting how great it would be to "be your own boss and make up to $28/hr in fares as an independent contractor" because you'd "make more money driving with Uber" than working at your boring 9-5 job.

Okay, they didn't actually say anything about a boring 9-5 job, but they're (IMO) strongly suggesting that driving for Uber would be better bec

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[account_deleted]

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[VeryFluffyBunny]

F*^k off Jarwulf. Uber's business model is to create a taxi company that skirts around every countries' laws & regulations that protect both drivers & passengers. Every worker, whatever the job, deserves a living wage, healthcare, & unemployment benefits. Instead, Uber are using & abusing people & then denying all responsibility.

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[Dog-Cow]

Every worker, whatever the job, deserves a living wage

Jobs are worth what employers will pay for them. It is up to the employer to decide if offering more is necessary to find or retain competent employees.

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[Cederic]

People are worth what society deems them to be worth. If an employer isn't willing to pay that much for someone's time then fuck them, they can go out of business. No loss to society anyway.

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[account_deleted]

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[drinkypoo]

So yet another venture that will hemorrhage money while making him rich and fucking over the 'independent contractors'

This one is actually a good idea, as there's actually a need for this. Not just for delivery-only "Restaurant" businesses, but also for those types of prepared foods which are not legal to prepare in a home kitchen.

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[ClickOnThis]

This one is actually a good idea, as there's actually a need for this. Not just for delivery-only "Restaurant" businesses, but also for those types of prepared foods which are not legal to prepare in a home kitchen and sell to the public.

FTFY

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[Pinky's Brain]

Restaurants aren't independent contractors, nor are they interchangeable.

Leasing restaurant kitchens for delivery was simply a smart business opportunity.

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[Cederic]

How? How does this work?

"Joe, we have an order on Jameson Avenue, two lobster souffle starters, a Fillet Mignon and a Turbot Ravioli please."

"Ok, I'll look up nearby restaurant kitchens I can hire. Damn, nothing nearer than Bruce Street until 8.30. Can they wait?"

P/E ratio

[o_ferguson]

Technicals are a bitch.

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[ClickOnThis]

Technicals are a bitch.

What? The P/E ratio is a fundamental (not technical) metric. And UBER doesn't have one, because there is no E to put into the P/E calculation.

As for UBER technicals, they're pretty strong on the daily horizon, but mixed on the monthly horizon.

https://www.investing.com/equi... [investing.com]

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[o_ferguson]

Touché.

Translation

[war4peace]

Rat flees sinking ship.

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[lgw]

It normal for a CEO to leave a year or two after a major change to a company that gives him less control, such as going public or being acquired. It's odd, very odd, for him to sell all his shares. Makes me wonder what he knows.

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[JaredOfEuropa]

He ought to know that Uber is built on quicksand, that its business model is failing, and that its endeavours to use new capital to expand into side ventures (flying taxis, self driving cars) is not working out... for Uber, their only hope might be to hit it big in another business or to buy something that turns out to be a huge success. So he knows that the company is absurdly overvalued. If he gets out now he might grab his $2.5B. If he only sells off 10%, he might make a lot more later... but it's far

Startup to Public - different skill sets

[drnb]

It normal for a CEO to leave a year or two after a major change to a company that gives him less control, such as going public or being acquired. It's odd, very odd, for him to sell all his shares. Makes me wonder what he knows.

Its also normal to kick out a founder/CEO who is not making the management transition to a publicly traded company. Startup and publicly traded need two very different skill sets. Those with the former aren't always able to learn the latter.

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[account_deleted]

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[lgw]

They didn't. They sent her to jail for "obstruction", which is usually "innocent but fuck you anyway".

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[account_deleted]

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[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? Are you for real?

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[redback]

my thoughts exactly. arent 90s bro cultures more the norm in tech companies?

Social justice injustice

[groobly]

He may be a slime, but he definitely got screwed by cancel culture.

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[account_deleted]

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