Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Has Sold Off His Entire Uber Stake

ByJoseph Gibsonon December 28, 2019inArticles›Billionaire News

Travis Kalanick , the co-founder and former CEO of Uber , has wound down his active association with the rideshare app company. He’s done this by selling off his entire Uber stock holdings over the last several weeks. He started selling his stake as soon as the company went public earlier in 2019 and completed his final sale this week. In addition to selling his Uber shares, he’s also stepping down from the company’s board of directors.

The value of Kalanick’s sold stock is reportedly over $2.5 billion, according to the latest publicly available data. He started selling the stock back in early November, when the first investors in Uber were allowed to sell their shares. That was after a six-month period following Uber’s IPO prohibiting early investors and employees of the company from selling any stock on the open market.

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As for Kalanick, he’s said to be “mov[ing] on to other pursuits,” including a business that allows food delivery companies to rent out kitchen space for filling orders from online delivery apps rather than maintaining their own spaces. It’s called CloudKitchens, and Kalanick kicked in some of the funds to get it off the ground along with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invested a reported $400 million towards it early in 2019. Here’s part of a press statement from Kalanick on his decision to part ways with Uber:

“Uber has been a part of my life for the past 10 years. At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits. I’m proud of all that Uber has achieved, and I will continue to cheer for its future from the sidelines. I want to thank the board, Dara and the entire Uber team for everything they have done to further the Uber mission.”

Beyond that, it’s not known for sure why Kalanick decided to cut all ties with Uber, but he’s reportedly been frustrated with management, compounded by tension stemming from his being forced out of bigger responsibilities by investors concerned about possible scandals involving a “chauvinistic culture” within the company as well as a federal investigation into allegations that Uber used software to dodge regulations.

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Travis Kalanick Sells $547 Million Of Uber Stock To Fund His Next Venture

ByAmy Lamareon November 19, 2019inArticles›Billionaire News

Well, that didn’t take long. It’s been just about two years since Travis Kalanick was forced out of the company he helped co-found: Uber. Now he’s sold an enormous chunk of Uber stock just as the ride-sharing company’s post-IPO lockup period ended. Kalanick sold 20.3 million shares for about $547 million on Friday, November 8, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The lockup period is a 180-day restriction designed to reduce the volatility of shares in newly public companies.

Last week, Uber saw heavy selling that sent its share price spiraling downward for a 9% loss. The company is currently less valuable than it was in 2015 and some private investors are underwater on their investments. Share prices are down 36% since the IPO.

With the sale, Kalanick now has a 4.6% stake in Uber. That’s worth about $2.5 billion. He’s also still a member of the board of directors.

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Back in 2017, the proverbial ‘Ishtar hit the fan for Kalanick and Uber. First, he was lambasted by the public for joining Donald Trump’s team of advisers. He dropped out of that committee a few weeks later. Then, a video surfaced of Kalanick viciously berating an Uber driver while he was a passenger in the car. The driver was frustrated over how the company pays its drivers. Kalanick unleashed on his driver saying, among other things:

“Some people don’t want to take responsibility for their ‘sh-t.’”

At the time, Kalanick’s outburst seemed to be the lowest point he and the company he ran could sink to. And then, a former Uber engineer named Susan Fowler published an impassioned blog post in which she accused the company over overt sexism. She was propositioned by her boss time and time again. She took it to H.R. and they told her that her boss was too important to discipline. #DeleteUber became a trending topic on social media. Uber hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the growing number of allegations of sexual harassment.

After numerous scandals, the board of directors had enough and asked for his resignation. This marked the end of this chapter of Kalanick’s high-flying career. But now, with the infusion of $547 million into his bank accounts, it’s left people wondering just what Kalanick is up to next.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported an investment by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund into CloudKitchens. Guess who runs that company? Travis Kalanick. It is a delivery-only restaurant startup. This is a relatively new space for apps – these so-called kitchens are known as virtual restaurants or dark kitchens. Dark kitchens/virtual restaurants are kitchen-only concepts that process and produce orders for delivery. There are no tables, chairs, servers, hosts, or storefront. The food can only be ordered online or through a mobile app and is delivered to the customer.

What’s fascinating is that with this new venture, Kalanick is competing directly with his former company. UberEats has been scaling its business rapidly and getting into the dark kitchen space.

For a long time, Uber was the most valuable startup in the world. It has lost that title to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

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