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I remain flabbergasted by all of this upheaval at Uber. What's happening is the sort of housecleaning I would expect if the company had to file for bankruptcy o

I remain flabbergasted by all of this upheaval at Uber. What's happening is the sort of housecleaning I would expect if the company had to file for bankruptcy or got caught flat out bribing judges or something. But really, what triggered all this was acting like jerks. It seems to me, what should have happened (a long time ago) was that they got shut down for systematically breaking the law, or encouraging others to do so. That would have made sense. But instead they are getting flayed alive by not much more than bad press for being jerks. Makes no goddamn sense.

tw04 9y ago
You're assuming the current board didn't have this planned for a long time. Let them break the law to get things done, then clean house after the stage was properly set. I STILL think that people are downplaying the Otto thing way too much, especially on this site. It's easy to say that they're going to win in court... but this is GOOGLE - they're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and likely a decade trying to win this thing. Google isn't going to stop until they've exhausted literally every legal avenue possible. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a good portion of this isn't Uber's board trying to save the company from that legal battle - fire Kalanick, boot *Gurley, then license the tech from Waymo that was previously stolen.
- erichurkman 9y ago
  And Google does not need to win. At the scale of Google v. Uber, getting injunctions, delays, and bogging down Uber's self driving car efforts are valuable on their own.
  - justicezyx 9y ago
    Not slow down, just not use what Google got through much more capital investment. That's where they should be, unless Uber prove that they are not using what was developed at Google.
- austenallred 9y ago
  Kalanick still had the majority. The board couldn't "plan" this without his consent.
  - tw04 9y ago
    They absolutely could plan it without his consent. Uber is still hemorrhaging money. They'd be lucky to make it through 2018 if those investors turned off the tap.
    - FussyZeus 9y ago
      Exactly. If you haven't made a profit you don't control shit, you get exactly as much control as the moneypurses allow you have and NO more.
    - smallgovt 9y ago
      They absolutely could not put this plan into effect without his consent. Uber has plenty of sources for capital. The current board consists mainly of individuals who do not have funds to capitalize Uber anyways. Take a look at their funding history and you will realize that the lead in each round is a new investor.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - exolymph 9y ago
    Depends on how you define "consent" — others have noted that they need to raise a round within a little over a year, and they may have threatened to poison the well if Kalanick didn't step down.
- taneq 9y ago
  I think you're onto something here. This seems like part of the plan (albeit hastened by the whole hostile workplace badness) - Misbehave as much as required to make it big, then axe a few prominent scapegoats to appease regulators and the mob. Meanwhile the ones pulling strings in the background carry on as usual.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
beambot 9y ago
You mean... Like the blatant obstruction of Justice a la Greyball? I'm sure the DoJ has gears in motion...
tyingq 9y ago
Probably variations of people taking advantage of the chaos to do things they weren't bold enough to do before. Whether resigning or forcing someone else out. Lots of grudges get settled during a riot.
beaner 9y ago
I feel like it makes perfect sense. It's capitalism in action. They are free to act like jerks, and their users and stakeholders are free to punish them for it.
- astrange 9y ago
  That isn't freedom, it's privatized crime and punishment. It's the same as saying you're free to be homeless if you can't afford rent. (Except this is good.)
  - beaner 9y ago
    I don't really see how it's privatized crime and punishment. Being a jerk isn't illegal. And the "punishment" is economic, not forceful. I don't think your analogy works.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- stale2002 9y ago
  Hostile work environments are not "just bring jerks", it is illegal.
  - beaner 9y ago
    I guess how you read my comment might depend on how sensitive you are to the criticisms. All I mean to say is that bad business gets economically punished. Internal culture is part of a business' reputation. I do not condone hostile work environments and neither do most people. This is why they are being punished. Uber must obey the law, they are not exempt from it. But economics has actually been more swift at enacting change here. I just think it's an interesting observation.
    - johncolanduoni 9y ago
      There's lots of bad business in lots of industries that goes unpunished, especially if we only include punishment due to economic forces/social pressure. Want to take any bets on whether Kalanick (who holds a voting majority) would have been ousted if Uber was profitable and not depending on future funding rounds to merely survive?
danaliv 9y ago
A jerk is someone who borrows your car and doesn't pay for the dent he puts in the bumper. What happened at Uber was the creation of one of the most insanely hostile work environments in living memory, where flouting not just the law, but also basic standards of human decency, was not only accepted but encouraged at all levels of the company.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  So basically all investment banking divisions should be treated with the same regard? I find it strange that we seem to give finance a pass when they've engaged in this sort of behavior for decades.
  - cf 9y ago
    Do we actually give the finance industry a pass? The fact that "Wall st" is a pejorative these days is some indication that's not the case.
    - aioprisan 9y ago
      The fact that there are never any real consequences to Wall St actually tends to prove the opposite.
      - graedus 9y ago
        Wall St has deeply and thoroughly captured all of the regulatory agencies charged with overseeing it, as well as most of the powerful organs of government, and thus sits comfortably above the law.
        malandrew 9y ago
        But not above the ire of the media. The media is just as money-corruptible as every other business enterprise and it found a shiny new toy to play with with Uber. There are likely orders of magnitude more workplace culture issues in finance, yet the media has largely moved past lambasting financial firms for that because it doesn't earn them enough eyeballs. Uber is only getting more attention for something many many many businesses are guilty of (and to a far greater degree) because no other company is as lucrative to write about.
draw_down 9y ago
Good grief. Yes, the press are the bad guys in all this.
lettergram 9y ago
> caught flat out bribing judges or something. I mean, pretty close: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-uber-greyball-20170505-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-uber-gre... They also have that Otto thing: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/googles-fight-uber-takes-turn-criminal/ https://www.wired.com/2017/05/googles-fight-uber-takes-turn-... Oh and yeah, and with the push to #deleteuber and the massive amount of cash Uber's burning (or was), I can't imagine they wont be bankrupt soon[1]. [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/uber-is-losing-an-insane-amount-of-money http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/uber-is-losing-an-ins...
- V-eHGsd_ 9y ago
  > and the massive amount of cash Uber's burning (or was), I can't imagine they wont be bankrupt soon let's wait and see what the q2 numbers look like before we start declaring the patient dead. The (for some reason) publicly reported q1 losses of 700m, were (was?) ~33% better than q4 2016 (1b). if the (presumably) publicly reported q2 numbers are in the neighborhood of 500m, you'd be looking at real growth. Quarter ends in 2 weeks and the q1 numbers were (for some reason) released right when q1 ended, so maybe we don't have to wait too long.
  - mattmanser 9y ago
    Part of that is seasonal, cold = more taxis.
    - malandrew 9y ago
      It's these types of comments that demonstrate how ignorant the doomsayers are about Uber's business. The doomsayers start with their desired failure outcome and work their way back to the present instead of seeing the myriad ways they could not be more wrong. In this case, Uber is an international business that operates in the northern and southern hemisphere and many places with other relevant weather patterns like rainy seasons and dry seasons. The seasonality at this point is likely almost entirely smoothed out by the sheer number of places they operate in globally. The US market might be larger and more mature, but many international markets have largely caught up now.
DanielLawhon 9y ago
I think a lot of the maneuvering that's happening now is prompted more by TK's seeming unwillingness to make sincere changes (and that's always worse than the initial mistake), but more importantly Uber's financials are still utter garbage right now and changes need to occur for that to be fixed in time for them to find the next Saudi Arabia that'll invest another $3.5B for them to keep the lights on for another year.
stale2002 9y ago
Sexual harassment and retaliation against employees for reporting it is not "just being jerks". It is illegal.
- pfarnsworth 9y ago
  Every large organization has instances of this, including Facebook, Google, and the Vatican. It's not right, but it's reality. The only thing is that every other company has done a great job of covering it up, like Amit Singhal who was fired from Google for sexual harrassment, but no one knew that before he joined Uber.
  - anth1988 9y ago
    Did google obtain medical records of rape victims?
  - _jal 9y ago
    You're right that, statistically speaking, the odds of a company facing a sexual harassment problem approaches unity over time. But this goes off the rails on the next part. On one hand, you have a company presumably following the legal process[1] of getting through a harassment accusation being accused of a "cover up" in order to implicitly draw an equivalence with a company that apparently had a policy of shielding specific employees from harassment claims. [1] I have no first-hand knowledge of the situation, but haven't seen any suggestions of impropriety.
    - pfarnsworth 9y ago
      You are presuming that Google followed the proper legal process based on what? Did you even bother doing the research? http://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr-after-sexual-1792802747 http://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr... According to multiple sources and internal notes read to me, after discussing the claims of an alleged encounter between Singhal and a female employee first with former Google HR head Laszlo Bock and also Google CEO Sundar Pichai in late 2015, he denied those claims at the time. He also apparently stated a number of times that there were two sides to every story. A former Google employee I spoke to has described the search giant’s HR as “a nasty mess.” They are not alone. Monday afternoon, former Google engineer Kelly Ellis shared some of her own experiences with at the company in light of the news surrounding Singhal’s departure. Ellis previously tweeted about sexual harassment she faced at Google back in 2015. Sounds eerily familiar. My point being the exact same as what I said. Uber isn't right for letting this happen, but companies like Google have allowed this to happen, you just don't hear about it. That said, your bias against Uber is blinding you.
fcorsitsaroaway 9y ago
Maybe that's the whole idea. "Pull it" as the man said. [& p.s. (this is actually kinda delicious) the house of Saud is not gonna be pleased. suckers.]
madeofpalk 9y ago
> But really, what triggered all this was acting like jerks. If you trivialise illegal activity as "acting like jerks", then none of this really holds much water. They've been jerks the whole time.
- lmm 9y ago
  What's striking and weird is that flagrant illegal activity as a core part of their business model never seemed to matter, but now this huge upheval is happening in response to a small amount of (sure, illegal) personal behaviour.
  - _jal 9y ago
    One of the cultural sicknesses the U.S. suffers from. If you win, all is forgiven. If you lose, there must be something wrong with you.
  - pjc50 9y ago
    Uber made a lot of enemies, so as soon as it tripped they've all jumped on the opportunity.
joejerryronnie 9y ago
I'm not sure how the Uber fallout is a surprise to anyone. As an analogy, take every major political scandal you can think of - Monica Lewinsky, Watergate, Iran Contra, Chappaquiddick, etc - and imagine a single elected official perpetrating them all within the course of a year. How do you think they would be treated?
- melvinmt 9y ago
  ... with a red carpet to the White House?
Tycho 9y ago
I suspect Huffington is behind a lot of this.
njyx 9y ago
I bet Travis will ultimately be back. They are parking him for 1-2 years (and he's willing) because there is such a negative culture in the place it pervades everything. Putting in some stability for a while makes sense, but a some point they will probably want to start running hard again.
- CodeWriter23 9y ago
  Actually, I think TK responded to the letter from the investors by saying "you want me out, fine, kick Gurley to the curb and I'm gone", knowing full well he can vote himself back in when he wants to.
oth3r 9y ago
Though there is nothing terrible about your comment in itself, the fact that it is the most highly upvoted in this thread really shows how toxic this community can be. People here really seem to think that a company culture that tolerates or encourages sexual harassment is acceptable as long as it's not illegal.
Iv 9y ago
The laws they were breaking are employment laws. Financial institutions are rooting for these kind of rebels. Making profits without employees is the holy grail of finance. They are willing to look away on law violations if you blind them with that dream. By the way, in my opinion, a similar sentiment is driving the hype in deep learning funding.
SREinSF 9y ago
Housecleaning indeed, though some departures were voluntary. 8 top level execs and two board members so far. Link contains a visual of who has left the building, 2 incoming execs and vacant C Suite spots. https://www.recode.net/2017/6/14/15794816/uber-charge-leadership-ceo-travis-kalanick-resigns https://www.recode.net/2017/6/14/15794816/uber-charge-leader... I'm surprised Thuan Pham (CTO) survived the carnage since he was mentioned in Susan Fowler's post. As an aside my dark horse candidates for CEO or COO are Thomas Staggs former Disney COO and Susan Wojcicki (Current YouTube CEO)
- leroy_masochist 9y ago
  Why on Earth would Susan leave Alphabet to go to Uber? Serious question...I think she probably has more money than she needs now, why would anyone subject themselves to what running Uber is going to be like? Staggs I can see, he's made it pretty clear he's looking for a big job -- and as a former I-banker and public company corp fin / M&A guy, he very well may have an itch to prove he can hack it in startup-land (a la Anthony Noto).
CalChris 9y ago
I think the board is just covering their asses now for what they should have done at least a year ago.
rattray 9y ago
> they are getting flayed alive What unjust consequences are they experiencing, exactly? Bad press – and the associated bad reputation – seem warranted and acceptable, no? Uber always had a terrible reputation as a place to work, as far as I could tell (worked in the same building for a year). Employees leaving – also seems like a reasonable consequence for a negative work environment, and the press tables turning on a company that many joined because it was "hot". CEO getting fired – a key part of the job of a CEO is crisis management. He didn't manage "crises" well (eg; top execs left). Whether the crises were real or inflated is irrelevant.
imron 9y ago
> by not much more than bad press for being jerks The problem with being a jerk is that people will dislike you. They might put up with you if you are rich, successful and powerful, but they certainly won't look to help you if you are in trouble and may even come along to help put the boot in. > Makes no goddamn sense. What's happening makes perfect sense. People don't like jerks, and enjoy bringing them down.
- amrrs 9y ago
  He might have been a jerk, not all jerks get the same treatment of being covered in Front Page for every single issue. And that's what makes me believe it's inflated https://hackernoon.com/travis-kalanick-lost-today-hoping-to-be-found-fc4a7bad9779 https://hackernoon.com/travis-kalanick-lost-today-hoping-to-...
  - imron 9y ago
    See above about sticking in the boot when in trouble. Some of that might be opportunistically sticking in the boot, but there's a lot less boot sticking if the person involved is not a jerk. See also: http://www.paulgraham.com/mean.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mean.html And http://www.paulgraham.com/safe.html http://www.paulgraham.com/safe.html
endorphone 9y ago
is the sort of housecleaning I would expect if the company had to file for bankruptcy Uber is at a critical inflection point, and still remains a unsustainable company blowing through enormous amounts of cash. They desperately need to line up more, so unless they get their house in order they will not be an ongoing operation.
accountyaccount 9y ago
They're currently being investigated by the Justice Department and fired dozens of people over sexual harassment. They also maybe knowingly stole self-driving tech. Seems like a few big deals. And those are just the bigger issues, there are numerous issues with local municipalities and also issues with driver quality (someone in my state was raped by a driver who has since fled the country) and workforce satisfaction. There are a series of issues that will be problematic for them as they approach the need for more funding. If they aren't triaged now they're going to have bigger issues in the near future. Honestly this is the smartest thing they've done in a while.
erikpukinskis 9y ago
It's interesting how you use downplaying language "acting like jerks" and hyperbolic language "getting flayed alive" in order to try to sway the reader to your position. Myself, I'm finding it difficult to understand your position at all because you aren't describing any recognizable facts about the situation.

tw04 9y ago

You're assuming the current board didn't have this planned for a long time. Let them break the law to get things done, then clean house after the stage was properly set. I STILL think that people are downplaying the Otto thing way too much, especially on this site. It's easy to say that they're going to win in court... but this is GOOGLE - they're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and likely a decade trying to win this thing. Google isn't going to stop until they've exhausted literally every legal avenue possible. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a good portion of this isn't Uber's board trying to save the company from that legal battle - fire Kalanick, boot *Gurley, then license the tech from Waymo that was previously stolen.

erichurkman 9y ago
And Google does not need to win. At the scale of Google v. Uber, getting injunctions, delays, and bogging down Uber's self driving car efforts are valuable on their own.
- justicezyx 9y ago
  Not slow down, just not use what Google got through much more capital investment. That's where they should be, unless Uber prove that they are not using what was developed at Google.
austenallred 9y ago
Kalanick still had the majority. The board couldn't "plan" this without his consent.
- tw04 9y ago
  They absolutely could plan it without his consent. Uber is still hemorrhaging money. They'd be lucky to make it through 2018 if those investors turned off the tap.
  - FussyZeus 9y ago
    Exactly. If you haven't made a profit you don't control shit, you get exactly as much control as the moneypurses allow you have and NO more.
  - smallgovt 9y ago
    They absolutely could not put this plan into effect without his consent. Uber has plenty of sources for capital. The current board consists mainly of individuals who do not have funds to capitalize Uber anyways. Take a look at their funding history and you will realize that the lead in each round is a new investor.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- exolymph 9y ago
  Depends on how you define "consent" — others have noted that they need to raise a round within a little over a year, and they may have threatened to poison the well if Kalanick didn't step down.
taneq 9y ago
I think you're onto something here. This seems like part of the plan (albeit hastened by the whole hostile workplace badness) - Misbehave as much as required to make it big, then axe a few prominent scapegoats to appease regulators and the mob. Meanwhile the ones pulling strings in the background carry on as usual.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

beambot 9y ago

You mean... Like the blatant obstruction of Justice a la Greyball? I'm sure the DoJ has gears in motion...

tyingq 9y ago

Probably variations of people taking advantage of the chaos to do things they weren't bold enough to do before. Whether resigning or forcing someone else out. Lots of grudges get settled during a riot.

beaner 9y ago

I feel like it makes perfect sense. It's capitalism in action. They are free to act like jerks, and their users and stakeholders are free to punish them for it.

astrange 9y ago
That isn't freedom, it's privatized crime and punishment. It's the same as saying you're free to be homeless if you can't afford rent. (Except this is good.)
- beaner 9y ago
  I don't really see how it's privatized crime and punishment. Being a jerk isn't illegal. And the "punishment" is economic, not forceful. I don't think your analogy works.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
stale2002 9y ago
Hostile work environments are not "just bring jerks", it is illegal.
- beaner 9y ago
  I guess how you read my comment might depend on how sensitive you are to the criticisms. All I mean to say is that bad business gets economically punished. Internal culture is part of a business' reputation. I do not condone hostile work environments and neither do most people. This is why they are being punished. Uber must obey the law, they are not exempt from it. But economics has actually been more swift at enacting change here. I just think it's an interesting observation.
  - johncolanduoni 9y ago
    There's lots of bad business in lots of industries that goes unpunished, especially if we only include punishment due to economic forces/social pressure. Want to take any bets on whether Kalanick (who holds a voting majority) would have been ousted if Uber was profitable and not depending on future funding rounds to merely survive?

danaliv 9y ago

A jerk is someone who borrows your car and doesn't pay for the dent he puts in the bumper. What happened at Uber was the creation of one of the most insanely hostile work environments in living memory, where flouting not just the law, but also basic standards of human decency, was not only accepted but encouraged at all levels of the company.

hkmurakami 9y ago
So basically all investment banking divisions should be treated with the same regard? I find it strange that we seem to give finance a pass when they've engaged in this sort of behavior for decades.
- cf 9y ago
  Do we actually give the finance industry a pass? The fact that "Wall st" is a pejorative these days is some indication that's not the case.
  - aioprisan 9y ago
    The fact that there are never any real consequences to Wall St actually tends to prove the opposite.
    - graedus 9y ago
      Wall St has deeply and thoroughly captured all of the regulatory agencies charged with overseeing it, as well as most of the powerful organs of government, and thus sits comfortably above the law.
      - malandrew 9y ago
        But not above the ire of the media. The media is just as money-corruptible as every other business enterprise and it found a shiny new toy to play with with Uber. There are likely orders of magnitude more workplace culture issues in finance, yet the media has largely moved past lambasting financial firms for that because it doesn't earn them enough eyeballs. Uber is only getting more attention for something many many many businesses are guilty of (and to a far greater degree) because no other company is as lucrative to write about.

draw_down 9y ago

Good grief. Yes, the press are the bad guys in all this.

lettergram 9y ago

> caught flat out bribing judges or something. I mean, pretty close: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-uber-greyball-20170505-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-uber-gre... They also have that Otto thing: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/googles-fight-uber-takes-turn-criminal/ https://www.wired.com/2017/05/googles-fight-uber-takes-turn-... Oh and yeah, and with the push to #deleteuber and the massive amount of cash Uber's burning (or was), I can't imagine they wont be bankrupt soon[1]. [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/uber-is-losing-an-insane-amount-of-money http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/uber-is-losing-an-ins...

V-eHGsd_ 9y ago
> and the massive amount of cash Uber's burning (or was), I can't imagine they wont be bankrupt soon let's wait and see what the q2 numbers look like before we start declaring the patient dead. The (for some reason) publicly reported q1 losses of 700m, were (was?) ~33% better than q4 2016 (1b). if the (presumably) publicly reported q2 numbers are in the neighborhood of 500m, you'd be looking at real growth. Quarter ends in 2 weeks and the q1 numbers were (for some reason) released right when q1 ended, so maybe we don't have to wait too long.
- mattmanser 9y ago
  Part of that is seasonal, cold = more taxis.
  - malandrew 9y ago
    It's these types of comments that demonstrate how ignorant the doomsayers are about Uber's business. The doomsayers start with their desired failure outcome and work their way back to the present instead of seeing the myriad ways they could not be more wrong. In this case, Uber is an international business that operates in the northern and southern hemisphere and many places with other relevant weather patterns like rainy seasons and dry seasons. The seasonality at this point is likely almost entirely smoothed out by the sheer number of places they operate in globally. The US market might be larger and more mature, but many international markets have largely caught up now.

DanielLawhon 9y ago

I think a lot of the maneuvering that's happening now is prompted more by TK's seeming unwillingness to make sincere changes (and that's always worse than the initial mistake), but more importantly Uber's financials are still utter garbage right now and changes need to occur for that to be fixed in time for them to find the next Saudi Arabia that'll invest another $3.5B for them to keep the lights on for another year.

stale2002 9y ago

Sexual harassment and retaliation against employees for reporting it is not "just being jerks". It is illegal.

pfarnsworth 9y ago
Every large organization has instances of this, including Facebook, Google, and the Vatican. It's not right, but it's reality. The only thing is that every other company has done a great job of covering it up, like Amit Singhal who was fired from Google for sexual harrassment, but no one knew that before he joined Uber.
- anth1988 9y ago
  Did google obtain medical records of rape victims?
- _jal 9y ago
  You're right that, statistically speaking, the odds of a company facing a sexual harassment problem approaches unity over time. But this goes off the rails on the next part. On one hand, you have a company presumably following the legal process[1] of getting through a harassment accusation being accused of a "cover up" in order to implicitly draw an equivalence with a company that apparently had a policy of shielding specific employees from harassment claims. [1] I have no first-hand knowledge of the situation, but haven't seen any suggestions of impropriety.
  - pfarnsworth 9y ago
    You are presuming that Google followed the proper legal process based on what? Did you even bother doing the research? http://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr-after-sexual-1792802747 http://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr... According to multiple sources and internal notes read to me, after discussing the claims of an alleged encounter between Singhal and a female employee first with former Google HR head Laszlo Bock and also Google CEO Sundar Pichai in late 2015, he denied those claims at the time. He also apparently stated a number of times that there were two sides to every story. A former Google employee I spoke to has described the search giant’s HR as “a nasty mess.” They are not alone. Monday afternoon, former Google engineer Kelly Ellis shared some of her own experiences with at the company in light of the news surrounding Singhal’s departure. Ellis previously tweeted about sexual harassment she faced at Google back in 2015. Sounds eerily familiar. My point being the exact same as what I said. Uber isn't right for letting this happen, but companies like Google have allowed this to happen, you just don't hear about it. That said, your bias against Uber is blinding you.

fcorsitsaroaway 9y ago

Maybe that's the whole idea. "Pull it" as the man said. [& p.s. (this is actually kinda delicious) the house of Saud is not gonna be pleased. suckers.]

madeofpalk 9y ago

> But really, what triggered all this was acting like jerks. If you trivialise illegal activity as "acting like jerks", then none of this really holds much water. They've been jerks the whole time.

lmm 9y ago
What's striking and weird is that flagrant illegal activity as a core part of their business model never seemed to matter, but now this huge upheval is happening in response to a small amount of (sure, illegal) personal behaviour.
- _jal 9y ago
  One of the cultural sicknesses the U.S. suffers from. If you win, all is forgiven. If you lose, there must be something wrong with you.
- pjc50 9y ago
  Uber made a lot of enemies, so as soon as it tripped they've all jumped on the opportunity.

joejerryronnie 9y ago

I'm not sure how the Uber fallout is a surprise to anyone. As an analogy, take every major political scandal you can think of - Monica Lewinsky, Watergate, Iran Contra, Chappaquiddick, etc - and imagine a single elected official perpetrating them all within the course of a year. How do you think they would be treated?

melvinmt 9y ago
... with a red carpet to the White House?

Tycho 9y ago

I suspect Huffington is behind a lot of this.

njyx 9y ago

I bet Travis will ultimately be back. They are parking him for 1-2 years (and he's willing) because there is such a negative culture in the place it pervades everything. Putting in some stability for a while makes sense, but a some point they will probably want to start running hard again.

CodeWriter23 9y ago
Actually, I think TK responded to the letter from the investors by saying "you want me out, fine, kick Gurley to the curb and I'm gone", knowing full well he can vote himself back in when he wants to.

oth3r 9y ago

Though there is nothing terrible about your comment in itself, the fact that it is the most highly upvoted in this thread really shows how toxic this community can be. People here really seem to think that a company culture that tolerates or encourages sexual harassment is acceptable as long as it's not illegal.

Iv 9y ago

The laws they were breaking are employment laws. Financial institutions are rooting for these kind of rebels. Making profits without employees is the holy grail of finance. They are willing to look away on law violations if you blind them with that dream. By the way, in my opinion, a similar sentiment is driving the hype in deep learning funding.

SREinSF 9y ago

Housecleaning indeed, though some departures were voluntary. 8 top level execs and two board members so far. Link contains a visual of who has left the building, 2 incoming execs and vacant C Suite spots. https://www.recode.net/2017/6/14/15794816/uber-charge-leadership-ceo-travis-kalanick-resigns https://www.recode.net/2017/6/14/15794816/uber-charge-leader... I'm surprised Thuan Pham (CTO) survived the carnage since he was mentioned in Susan Fowler's post. As an aside my dark horse candidates for CEO or COO are Thomas Staggs former Disney COO and Susan Wojcicki (Current YouTube CEO)

leroy_masochist 9y ago
Why on Earth would Susan leave Alphabet to go to Uber? Serious question...I think she probably has more money than she needs now, why would anyone subject themselves to what running Uber is going to be like? Staggs I can see, he's made it pretty clear he's looking for a big job -- and as a former I-banker and public company corp fin / M&A guy, he very well may have an itch to prove he can hack it in startup-land (a la Anthony Noto).

CalChris 9y ago

I think the board is just covering their asses now for what they should have done at least a year ago.

rattray 9y ago

> they are getting flayed alive What unjust consequences are they experiencing, exactly? Bad press – and the associated bad reputation – seem warranted and acceptable, no? Uber always had a terrible reputation as a place to work, as far as I could tell (worked in the same building for a year). Employees leaving – also seems like a reasonable consequence for a negative work environment, and the press tables turning on a company that many joined because it was "hot". CEO getting fired – a key part of the job of a CEO is crisis management. He didn't manage "crises" well (eg; top execs left). Whether the crises were real or inflated is irrelevant.

imron 9y ago

> by not much more than bad press for being jerks The problem with being a jerk is that people will dislike you. They might put up with you if you are rich, successful and powerful, but they certainly won't look to help you if you are in trouble and may even come along to help put the boot in. > Makes no goddamn sense. What's happening makes perfect sense. People don't like jerks, and enjoy bringing them down.

amrrs 9y ago
He might have been a jerk, not all jerks get the same treatment of being covered in Front Page for every single issue. And that's what makes me believe it's inflated https://hackernoon.com/travis-kalanick-lost-today-hoping-to-be-found-fc4a7bad9779 https://hackernoon.com/travis-kalanick-lost-today-hoping-to-...
- imron 9y ago
  See above about sticking in the boot when in trouble. Some of that might be opportunistically sticking in the boot, but there's a lot less boot sticking if the person involved is not a jerk. See also: http://www.paulgraham.com/mean.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mean.html And http://www.paulgraham.com/safe.html http://www.paulgraham.com/safe.html

endorphone 9y ago

is the sort of housecleaning I would expect if the company had to file for bankruptcy Uber is at a critical inflection point, and still remains a unsustainable company blowing through enormous amounts of cash. They desperately need to line up more, so unless they get their house in order they will not be an ongoing operation.

accountyaccount 9y ago

They're currently being investigated by the Justice Department and fired dozens of people over sexual harassment. They also maybe knowingly stole self-driving tech. Seems like a few big deals. And those are just the bigger issues, there are numerous issues with local municipalities and also issues with driver quality (someone in my state was raped by a driver who has since fled the country) and workforce satisfaction. There are a series of issues that will be problematic for them as they approach the need for more funding. If they aren't triaged now they're going to have bigger issues in the near future. Honestly this is the smartest thing they've done in a while.

erikpukinskis 9y ago

It's interesting how you use downplaying language "acting like jerks" and hyperbolic language "getting flayed alive" in order to try to sway the reader to your position. Myself, I'm finding it difficult to understand your position at all because you aren't describing any recognizable facts about the situation.