Travis Kalanick
Travis
Kalanick stepped down Tuesday as chief executive of Uber, the
ride-hailing service that he
helped found in 2009 and built into a
transportation colossus, after a shareholder revolt made it untenable
for him to stay on at the company.
Mr.
Kalanick’s exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving
Uber’s investors, according to two people with knowledge of the
situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details were
confidential.
Earlier
on Tuesday, five of Uber’s major investors demanded that the chief
executive resign immediately. The investors included one of Uber’s
biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one
of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber’s board. The investors made their
demand for Mr. Kalanick to step down in a letter delivered to the chief
executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with knowledge of the
situation.
In
the letter, titled “Moving Uber Forward” and obtained by The New York
Times, the investors wrote to Mr. Kalanick that he must immediately
leave and that the company needed a change in leadership. Mr. Kalanick,
40, consulted with at least one Uber board member, and after long
discussions with some of the investors, he agreed to step down. He will
remain on Uber’s board of directors.
“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,” Mr. Kalanick said in a statement.
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