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Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake
- tw1010 9y agoWhat an incredible twist. I bet most people would have pinned him as the next Jobs or Gates only a few years ago.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y ago> I bet most people would have pinned him as the next Jobs And they would have been absolutely correct. Exactly what happened to Steve Jobs.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- adjkant 9y agoFar too early to say "correct". Starting a company that burns cash faster than anyone and cashing out is not at the same level of Steve Jobs.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y agoDo you know why Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple?
- adjkant 9y agoThe reason doesn't change the fact that it's too early to say that Kalanick is the next Jobs. His current and past actions can resemble Steve Jobs and Apple, but that says nothing about how the future will occur for Kalanick and Uber. Given the state of Uber with the Waymo lawsuit, their moonshot long-term investment I'm guessing you're referencing, I think things are very different between the two futures.
- jachee 9y agoIt wasn't allegations of sexual harassment and/or legally-questionable business practices.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y ago> It wasn't allegations of sexual harassment The "sexual harassment" claim was for an employee (or employees), it wasn't him who sexually harassed someone. There is sexual harassment everywhere. Probably at your company too, it's just that people wanted to see Uber fail, and that's why he's become the sacred cow. I'm not saying he did a great job dealing with these issues. I'm saying a lot of the things Uber was accused of was something that EVERY other company does. You just aren't aware of it. And in this particular case, this was used as a weapon to bring down Uber. The narrative you're following is really just a result of politics and media manipulation by some parties which benefited from this result.
- adjkant 9y ago> it's just that people wanted to see Uber fail, and that's why he's become the sacred cow. The sexual harassment did not come out because people wanted to see Uber fail. People want Uber to fail because it came out, and the extent of it. Extent is a very important factor. This was not "a person was sexually harassed once at a company", which does indeed happen at many places. This was a larger pattern and intrinsic problem. You're downplaying that by insinuating that all of this is because there was a target on Uber's back. There are good reasons people want to see them fail. > I'm saying a lot of the things Uber was accused of was something that EVERY other company does. You just aren't aware of it. Um, no. There are some more common than others, sure, but few companies were as bad as Uber was. Every company does not steal IP from other companies. Every company does not create software to evade law enforcement. Every company does not pay hackers to delete data. Every company does not hire psychologists in an attempt to manipulate drivers. The list goes on. You can argue that Kalanick deserves credit for his idea and perhaps even the overall effects in a utilitarian argument, but sweeping under the rug the bad reveals your bias very quickly. All of your posts on this thread are basically trying to defend him directly or indirectly while adding in a clause basically saying "well he wasn't perfect". Let's not erase the bad because he may have done something good, just as we shouldn't erase the good.
- exogeny 9y agoWas it because Steve Jobs tried to discredit a rape victim to protect his company's image and his personal holdings? I must have missed that part when I saw "Jobs" in the theater.
- throwaway-hn123 9y agoWhy don't you tell us?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- forapurpose 9y ago> Exactly what happened to Steve Jobs. Jobs wasn't fired for serially violating the law, risking his company's survival, damaging its reputation (EDIT: and mistreating everyone from female employees to rape victims).
- wand3r 9y agothats pretty much what he was fired for. Mistreating employees, damaging the company, it's reputation and he was caught later in his career in the wage setting scandal. So yeah, they are pretty similar. Not sure I have heard anything about TK going after rape victims specifically, thats a new one for me.
- forapurpose 9y agoOnly the words are similar, but the facts were not: Uber had a culture of sexual harassment, which is illegal; Jobs was a jerk to employees. Uber willfully violated many laws in many jurisdictions, as a policy and strategy, and even wrote and deployed software to obstruct justice; executives resigned rather than be associated with the illegality. Apple/Jobs violated the law once, colluding to not hire employees of certain competitors. These aren't really comparable.
- CardenB 9y agoDoes anyone know what sort of restrictions he could have on his stake? Is he allowed to do this? I would assume a CEO of a private company couldn't sell this much without being removed, but since he has already been removed, I wonder what incentives he would have to keep it.
- erichurkman 9y agoEven if he had restrictions, I would expect the current board / management to waive such restrictions to entice him to sell in the tender, particularly since there was a floor to Softbank's tender offer. Travis' stake filled a lot of that floor. Removing some of his voting power to replace it with an active investor is a nice bonus, too.
- huac 9y agoArticle said board members were limited to 50% of their stake.
- creator_lol 9y agoor he is planning to get off the sinking ship
- czardoz 9y agoPersonally, I really hope Uber does well. The leadership is new, they have more capital, and can do really well if they execute properly. No other company has that sort of a global reach in the on demand transport business right now. It's incredible that I can use the same app to hail a ride in so many cities and countries.
- akras14 9y agoThey got my business back after he left.
- kbenson 9y agoSounds more like the former captain absconding with the largest life raft and much of the passengers' riches after being fired. Whether he sabotaged the ship as well remains to be seen, but bystanders have noted it appears to be listing a bit to one side...
- oculusthrift 9y agomost likely just wants some cash to do other things with since he’s no longer ceo of uber
- outericky 9y agoSome cash? It’s 1.4B. Future generations will have some of that cash. I think he realizes he’s not going back and what’s the difference between 1.4 or 3B really? Especially given he’ll still have 71% retained.
- hkmurakami 9y agoBasically an admission that he has lost the power struggle.
- cylinder 9y agoWhat if he engineered his departure so he could get away with dumping his shares?
- kjksf 9y agoThen he deserves an Oscar and an Emmy. All this fake fighting for control over company. He certainly had me fooled.
- bertil 9y agoI’m not close enough to that action to know but I understand (from rumours) that he pretended to support a problematic successor who proved to be a dud to get the attention far from Dara, the person he actually wanted to take over.
- perseusprime11 9y agoToo much ego. Not possible
- tw1010 9y agoI suspect people can be waay harder to model then that.
- outside1234 9y agoSmart dude - bailing the sinking ship
- icantdrive55 9y agoI don't like his company, nor him, but he knows about money. I know is sacreligous to call out a bubble, but this current economy just feels like one. And yes--I know about the glorious unemployment rate. I also know about the other rate ("able bodied, but aren't working"). Plus--no inflation. Plus--no increase of wages. Plus--a bunch of companies I can't figure out what they actually do. I wouldn't be suprised if he cashed out of everything. While poor guys/idiots, like myself, are thinking about putting money back in the market. I'm not going to put my last few thousand in, but I'm envious of the gains. Whenever I feel like this, the market tanks.
- jerrycruncher 9y agoTo be fair, he's the one who stuffed the ships with morality-free sailors, booze, drugs and prostitutes and then acted surprised when his investors questioned his ability to captain.
- rndmind 9y agoI know it's not what you meant, but you just described my ideal boating adventure.
- QAPereo 9y agoOf course those questions were only raised after it all went public, and Uber became a bad word in some circles. It’s possible the investors were so due diligence free that they had no clue, but I really doubt it.
- esturk 9y agoYou know the saying "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Well it can just as well apply here. He could just be at full tilt.
- paunchy 9y agoAlthough unsurprising, this can't be a good indicator for the outlook of the company.
- tyingq 9y agoHard to determine if he lost confidence in "his vision" vs "current + future vision". In his place, having lost direct control, I'd be tempted to cash out early solely because my influence was so diminished. Not because I was 100% sure the new direction wasn't right. So I can't tell if this is an admission that Uber is over valued, or just a risk management decision around losing more direct control.
- paunchy 9y agoTrue. But by cashing out the maximum possible amount, this is far more than a hedge. In your scenario, I would cash out some but would have confidence in the strength of the business that I created... unless I didn't. In reality, I'm at a loss as to why anyone would join Uber right now. They cannot be still attracting the best talent, especially in the autonomous vehicle space. And I've seen no evidence that the current ride sharing business is defensible, particularly once you account for the equity infusions that subsidize that business.
- tyingq 9y agoI get your point, but is roughly 1/3 of my stake having lost direct control that strong a statement? Personally, I think his next move is more telling. If he holds 2 thirds, that's an endorsement. If he keeps selling, then, yeah...it's a signal.
- wozniacki 9y agoPerhaps someone well versed in these matters could chime in but the somewhat bigger question is whether its a good indicator even for the economy at large, since Uber's reach is quite global. Just today: One of the biggest surprises of the U.S. stock market’s relentless rally is how many individual investors have run away from it. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 25000 for the first time on Thursday, punctuating a record-setting period nearly unmatched in U.S. history. Yet throughout the nearly nine-year surge in share prices, individual investors have continued to yank money out of funds that own U.S. stocks. Nearly $1 trillion has been pulled from retail-investor mutual funds that target U.S. stocks since the start of 2012, according to EPFR Global, a fund-tracking firm. Over that same period through Wednesday, the S&P 500 soared 116% and, along with the Dow Industrials and Nasdaq Composite Index, rose to 190 all-time highs.[1] [1] As Dow Tops 25000, Individual Investors Sit It Out Since 2012, $1 trillion has been pulled from retail- investor mutual funds that target U.S. stocks https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-dow-tops-25000-individual-investors-sit-it-out-1515099703 https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-dow-tops-25000-individual-in...
- ProfessorLayton 9y agoLooks like there were a lot of people looking to cash out, since he was unable to sell 50% like initially offered [1] [1] https://twitter.com/EricNewcomer/status/949095493052768256 https://twitter.com/EricNewcomer/status/949095493052768256 Still, a 1.4B cash out is $437,363 per day return for Kalanick. Wow!
- kjksf 9y agoAccording to the article, the limit is not because Softbank and others were not willing to buy more but because Softbank and others could not buy more. Presumably because other investors didn't want Softbank to buy too much shares and gain too much control over Uber. In other words, Softbank bought as much as they possibly could.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- spray 9y agoI just wish this company would go away already.
- asdjasldkjkljd 9y agobest thing he could do for the company, tbh
- mabbo 9y agoI'm somehow reminded of Francesco Schettino. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster
- xandar11 9y agoUber's business model is a total failure. Hubert Horan has done an amazing job exposing it [1] and you can also listen to his interview [2]. [1] http://horanaviation.com/Uber.html http://horanaviation.com/Uber.html [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0D_Q8xvosM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0D_Q8xvosM
- tristanj 9y agoLyft and Uber share the same business model, which is ride hailing. Is Lyft's business model also a total failure?
- exogeny 9y agoYes. Without billions of subsidies from VCs, both companies are long gone. I'll leave it up to you to conclude whether or not trading $0.60 for a $1 can last forever.
- baldajan 9y agoIt doesn’t have to last forever, it just has to last longer than the competitor.
- TaylorAlexander 9y ago“We lose money on every sale but we make it up in volume.”
- adjkant 9y agoThis isn't intrinsically true. If they raise the prices, does the market go away? If they are able to outlast and go to self-driving cars, how profitable is that business when factoring in competition, possible regulation, or it even becoming a public utility?
- baldajan 9y agoYou’re underestimating the current oligarchy that exists. That’s why net neutrality is dead. You’re right, it’s not intrinsically true, but it’s pretty damn close to it... Side note: big companies generally die because they don’t take a real threat seriously, and by the time they do, it’s too late.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y agoGood for him. This is probably an unpopular opinion here, but I feel bad for this guy. Could have built a really great empire, and he probably would have if it was ten years ago. But things are changing so fast nowadays and the masses have a lot of power (maybe too much than they deserve) and Uber unfortunately was at the wrong place at the wrong time. When I talk to real people in the real world (not Twitter trolls and social justice warriors), most people appreciate how Uber changed the world for the better. He deserves every cent of his billions of dollars.
- hyperbovine 9y agoBoy, where to even begin... "wrong place at the wrong time"? Are you actually aware of the circumstances under which he was forced out?
- ejstronge 9y agoPerhaps the 'real people in the real world' would be offended and stop using Uber if they knew of Kalanick and his team's doings, not the least of which has been the intimidation and attempt to discredit a rape victim. EDIT: I appear to be mis-remembering Uber's actions - they did not initially share their denial of the victim's experiences with her, per the accounts I've found. In this setting, 'intimidation' may be too strong a word.
- adjkant 9y ago+1 to this, most people have no idea of the laundry list of terrible things Uber did.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y agoThis keeps coming up. Uber did not intimidate the rape victim.
- Ppw24 9y agoWe know they obtained her medical records in an attempt to discredit her, and Travis knew. https://www.recode.net/2017/6/7/15754316/uber-executive-india-assault-rape-medical-records https://www.recode.net/2017/6/7/15754316/uber-executive-indi... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/07/uber-executive-fired-eric-alexander-rape-case-india https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/07/uber-exec... That alone should disqualify Kalanick from serving as CEO. Instead of firing the executive who took the records immediately, he gave his implicit approval by considering the records.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y agoHappy for him. I can only imagine how much being ousted from a company he created and raised to its current level must have hurt. I do not look fondly at what a pain local transport was in cities without public transport (and even those with), and it is Travis (yes, Travis first, Uber second) that led this paradigm shift. We can debate about Uber's business practices until the cows come home, but this is undeniable. And yes, other so-called 'nicer' / 'ethical' rideshare companies who didn't have to get their hands dirty because they profited from the ecosystem that Uber created exist precisely because of that.
- ivanbakel 9y ago>We can debate about Uber's business practices until the cows come home, but this is undeniable. This is really strangely dismissive. Does the "paradigm shift" justify any and all of Uber's unethical actions? If so, why do you think breaking the law and harassing rape victims is either acceptable or laudable? If not, why bring it up, unless you're perpetuating some kind of entrepeneur business-worship over basic moral decency?
- remarkEon 9y agoSteve Jobs was, on balance, likely a horrible person and needlessly cruel. I’m still very happy he did what he did. These people are human, and are not without sin. Entrepreneur worship is weird, I agree, however I wouldn’t dismiss the additive things otherwise miserable people did for society.
- forapurpose 9y agoJobs is a great point, for the other argument. Jobs didn't break the law, but he disrupted multiple industries from computers to phones to music to retail.
- remarkEon 9y agoYou’re absolutely right. And Travis needs to be criticized for that (and he is). If the question, though, is about judging a company’s contribution to society based on how morally upstanding the founder is I think the point I’m trying to make still stands.
- m3kw9 9y agohe probably needs cash to start his next thing
- wand3r 9y agoNEXT Taxi. All the vehicles look like black cubes.
- gigatexal 9y agoGreat time to sell with SoftBank throwing money around. Get out and retire to an island with your billions.
- forgotpw2018 9y agoSeems like a good time to dump this =). I think I know the kind of world Travis comes from. He was in a fraternity, and he treated it like a business like I did. When he owned a real business he applied those lessons far too liberally. Fraternities are ruthlessly competitive, going as far as planting fake pledges and building internal dossiers on all the other frats on campus. Very valuable was your loyal man with a generic young face that could walk their way into other houses unsuspected. Fraternities are also bound strongly by shared goals and lifetime membership, something that doesn't translate to a company where you can leave anyday. They're both a company and a political structure within the university. A strange 501c3 title 9 exempt chimera that forever walks the line. I'm not defending what he's done, just saying that ruthless counterintelligence is normal for Greek houses trying to get an edge, just like politics. We did much of the same, going as far as putting together wifi sniffers with long range dish antennas pointed at other houses to figure out how many people connected to their WiFi during parties. We never did any harm, but we watched as closely as our abilities (and the law) allowed. It was opposition research, as bad as politics, and often intertwined. At one point I was fraternity president and my roommate was president of the Student House of Representatives, in charge of the school's 'activity fee', which was close to 50 million a year. We both hated politics and left them forever after graduation, but seeing into the void was a hell of an eye opener for both of us. I have a strong feeling Travis tried the fraternity formula on a unicorn. A fraternity is much different primarily because you're elected. If you own it, you don't have to pander to anyone or spend half your time watching your back. I think the shadier and secretive projects are a reflection that Travis didn't understand that.
- ryandrake 9y agoAs someone who knows nothing about fraternities: what on earth are they competing over? Are they competing over who throws the best parties?
- bhldr 9y agoMeatheads will compete over anything
- discoursism 9y ago
- LarryDarrell 9y agoHe at least showed us that waving a smartphone in the face of regulators and the public was the next best thing to a Jedi mind trick. waves smartphone "Uber is not a taxi service." -"Uber isn't a taxi service" waves smartphone "There is no need to regulate us as a taxi service." -"There's no need to regulate them like a taxi service." waves smartphone "Uber drivers are not employees." -"These drivers are not employees."
- make3 9y agoNetflix also does that to an extent, but just with "the web", like we're in the 2000s or somthing. The Canadian government just waived applying sales taxes to the subscriptions. wtf.
- forapurpose 9y ago> waving a smartphone in the face of regulators At least for government, that wasn't a smartphone he was waving. It was a stack of something with drawings of U.S. Presidents on it, sort of greenish. > waving a smartphone in the face ... the public was the next best thing to a Jedi mind trick. In that case, the smartphones were the ones in the public's hands: Uber ran an effective media campaign, including paid-for editorials in major newspapers (and I'm guessing elsewhere) about how great it is to be an Uber driver, and, AFAICT, astroturfing in online forums and social media. Uber was a darling of the business world, a paragon of SV and American innovation. Not so long ago, you couldn't say anything negative about Uber on HN without being voted down to oblivion, and the talking points were repeated in every discussion.
- vit05 9y ago>regulators and the public My question is: Why do we need separate this two "faces"? And if we need, even when they want the same thing, should we have both?
- tw1010 9y agoIt feels like a lot of people are saying, through distorted lenses, that it is understandable that he didn't become the next big tech leader because this or that reason. (Almost as if they "knew all along that this would happen".) Why not be honest with ourselves instead? Let's just admit that our predictor functions got this one totally wrong, and that we should probably each individually, and maybe as a community, learn from this lesson and somehow correct whatever the bug in the function was.
- Balgair 9y ago> correct whatever the bug in the function was. You mean the egregious sexual harassing and blatant attempts to obstruct justice? Or do you mean the ability of people on the HN forums to predict the future?
- eanzenberg 9y agoWho did Travis sexually harass?
- Balgair 9y agoLike, if your kids run off and stomp all over the neighbor's petunias, that's on you, the parent. Similarly, if your platoon drives a tank over and wrecks some civilian's lawn, that's on you, the lieutenant. Also, if you are a CEO/manager/whatever and your employees are just the worst to other employees, that's on you, the manager/CEO person. Did you wreck the neighbor's petunias yourself? No. But you were the responsible person in charge. So, did T-dawg grope without restraint? I don't know, likely not. But he let it happen, repeatedly, for months. Also, that whole 'grey-ball' thing.
- wand3r 9y ago> T-dawg
- CydeWeys 9y agoThere's always going to be a large element of chance and random error though. And he was pretty damn successful for awhile anyway, until the misdeeds caught up with him; who else that's emerged on the tech scene in the past decade was as successful?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wmf 9y agoCan employees also cash out in the Softbank deal?
- akras14 9y agoCame here to say something along those lines. https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/29/handcuffed-to-uber/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/29/handcuffed-to-uber/
- mrschwabe 9y agoTravis is to Uber as Ross Ulbricht is to Silk Road (but for transportation). Both made a practical business innovation but crossed a sensitive line and so they were attacked/penalized for it. But the cat is already out of the bag; the idea and technology to fulfill their goals cannot be stopped. In that sense, attacking an individual innovator is futile; at best it's a short term setback for the market they are trying to serve.
- dawhizkid 9y agoTravis Kalanick has spent his entire career in P2P space...wouldn’t be surprised if his next move is an ICO!
- thisisit 9y ago> Kalanick, who owns 10 percent of the company The planned sale is of 29% of his stake ie 3% of Uber. I guess 3% doesn't have the same flourish.
- matchagaucho 9y agoAfter taxes this sale would amount to $1B+. That's a solid psychological finish line for some entrepreneurs. The liquid Billion club gets a pretty cool Amex card with personal concierge.
- cityzen 9y agoAt least he can keep the JamPad funded for a few more years.
- perseusprime11 9y agoIs there a way for individual investors like us to buy it before they go public?
- msmith10101 9y agoLooks like both Benchmark and Travis Kalanick wanted to sell more stock than they were able to. Can someone explain who was able to sell stock and how their sell preferences were prioritized and executed? Was everyone able to sell at least one percent of their holdings, for example?