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Uber's ex-CEO surprisingly appoints two new board members
When Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down in June, he retained his ownership stake in the company and seat on its board of directors. That made things awkward throughout the company's search for a new CEO, and has initiated a lawsuit from Uber's largest shareholder, Benchmark Capital. Now, the ex-CEO has suddenly appointed two new board members, apparently without notifying the rest of the company. The 10th and 11th board members are former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and former Merrill Lynch head John Thain. According to the Wall Street Journal, a $3.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund in 2016 gave Kalanick control of three board seats. Those two extra seats are at issue in Benchmark's lawsuit, presumably for this exact reason. Bloomberg reports that new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called the appointments a "complete surprise." The move is apparently occurring in order to head off a planned Tuesday vote that would rework the company's corporate governance, giving Kalanick two votes on his side.
Investors demand key VC firm leave Uber’s board in light of lawsuit
Yesterday, it was revealed that Benchmark Capital, an Uber investor with a seat on the company's board, is suing former CEO Travis Kalanick for fraud. Now, in an equally bizarre move, a group of investors is asking Benchmark to divest a significant portion of its Uber shares and remove itself from the company's board.
Investment firm sues Uber's Kalanick to oust him from board
It has been only a couple of days since Uber co-founder Garrett Camp promised that former CEO Travis Kalanick would not be coming back to the company as CEO. Now Benchmark Capital, an early investor with a seat on Uber's board, is suing Kalanick for fraud. The complaint seeks to invalidate an earlier vote to expand the board with three seats, one of which Kalanick assigned himself to after stepping down as CEO. Benchmark claims that it would never have voted for the board expansion in June of last year had it known of Kalanick's "gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber."
