Earlier this week Uber CEO Travis had announced that he would soon be taking an indefinite leave of absence to become a better leader. However, apparently this didn’t convince the investors who have pumped in huge investments in the company that has been in headlines of late for not so good news.
Kalanick’s exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber’s investors as per two undisclosed sources with knowledge of the situation. The CEO of the ride-hailing service had announced last week his intention,
“to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve.”
But that announcement didn’t deter the resolve of the investors who were not appeased by this announcement and wanted a bigger change in the structure of the company. The investors which include venture capital firm Benchmark, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Fidelity Investments, together own more than a quarter of Uber’s stock
In total, they have about 40% of Uber’s voting power. The investors demanded Kalanick’s resignation in a letter delivered to him while he was in Chicago. Since inception the investors have put in millions of dollars into the company and its current valuation hovers around USD 70 billion.
Through the letter Travis was informed that he must step down since the company needs a change in leadership. They also demanded that Travis must support a Board-led search committee for a new Chief Executive and that Uber immediately hire an experienced Chief Financial Officer.
In response to this Travis had released a statement stating,
“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors’ request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight.”
This change is definitely going to have lasting impact on Uber’s future since until now the company was typically moulded in the image of Travis.
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