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Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#301

Post by vkou »

nradov wrote: post #294
Animats wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the existing investors refused to play ball, they could kill the next round, which really would kill Uber. If there's a next round, it will probably involve a big haircut for the early-stage investors.

I think you mean a big haircut for the later stage investors. Even if Uber has a down round, the earliest investors will probably still have positive returns (at least on paper).

Haircut does not imply that they will have negative returns. It could mean that instead of a 50x ROI, they end up with a 5x ROI.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#302

Post by tluyben2 »

flyosity wrote: post #5

If Uber ends up going down in flames, unable to recover from the scandals and lawsuits, and Lyft prevails, it will be the most incredible change of fate in the business world this century or perhaps longer. The future of automobiles and transportation is still being swirled about, and it feels like Uber's downfall has blown the game WIDE open, ready for anyone (maybe Uber, maybe Lyft, maybe Tesla, Google, Apple, an a…

Lyft is US only isn't it? How would that be a good thing?

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#303

Post by rorykoehler »

Animats wrote: post #41

This may kill Uber. Kalanick is a jerk, but he created that insane valuation. Uber has less than a year of runway left at their current burn rate. Unless they can find a bigger sucker than the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia,[1] they're going broke in 2018. (That "undisclosed amount" in 2017 isn't a significant investment on Uber's scale.) IPO? No way. They'd have to publish audited numbers. What's leaked out i…

The writing has been on the wall for years. Never believed Uber would transition to profitability.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#304

Post by marvin »

kamaal wrote: post #258
watwut wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but winning meant becoming big while loosing money and saddling company with long term problems. Investors likely care about the money thing more.

There is no easy way for these people to make money. Not unless they start charging their customers some multiples of price higher than they are doing currently. Here in India, I go by the office cab to home everyday. I generally chat with the drivers as to why they don't drive for Uber/Ola etc. The answer is they need to make a good 1300 rupees on a round trip to be profitable, at a minimum of 6 trips per day. A tri…

That's less than one order of magnitude (10x), but of course the point stands.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#305

Post by cthulha »

cryptophreak wrote: post #70
flyosity wrote: post #5

If Uber ends up going down in flames, unable to recover from the scandals and lawsuits, and Lyft prevails, it will be the most incredible change of fate in the business world this century or perhaps longer. The future of automobiles and transportation is still being swirled about, and it feels like Uber's downfall has blown the game WIDE open, ready for anyone (maybe Uber, maybe Lyft, maybe Tesla, Google, Apple, an a…

Do we have any data to suggest that Uber is materially weakened? Do the negative headlines and social media posts necessarily translate into significant changes in consumer behavior?

Does losing talent and having trouble finding executives count?

No COO, CFO and CMO for such a long time means the CEO was not doing his most important job: creating a high-functioning executive team.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-uber-leadership-gap/

You might think they're still strong in operations, but company-destroying risks rise every day the the leadership suite is in turmoil like this. And that's just internal risks: what about their competitors and antagonists?

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#306

Post by trophycase »

kornish wrote: post #43
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> epic destruction of value Better than abiding by an epic destruction of values.

Don't kid yourself for a second that investors are kicking Travis out because of a moral imperative.

Don't kid yourself into thinking that a majority of the public knows or even cares about the things that Uber has done. They use Uber because everyone else uses Uber and to take an "Uber" is to use a "Kleenex" or to "Google" something.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#307

Post by ballooney »

rmason wrote: post #12

Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors behind this horrid behavior. Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them. They pressure him into taking a sabbatical, then two days in they pull this cowardly act of firing him remotely. Not only was it a cowardly act, but it was the wrong thing to do for the business. It will lead to an epic destruction of value. Wo…

    > he created an awful lot of value for them
Has he though? No one who bought Uber for $70bn right now would ever get their money back, despite that being it's 'value' (I know, I must be new here). This is all just fantastical and silly, a constant game of persuading investors to play along. Unless there is some great master plan for pivoting into a business that's actually feasible as a business, he's no more a great CEO than the Wizard of Oz or Bernie Madoff.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#308

Post by pishpash »

pducks32 wrote: post #295
pishpash wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will also be a tragedy. With Kalanick gone, Uber is already behaving like a conformist, viz. the recent headlines (1) "Uber co-founder: We’ve been too obsessed with growth" (what?); (2) "Uber is (finally) rolling out tipping" (just awful). That sounds just like Lyft and Lyft is not a worthy rival in any sense of the word.

In places like Chicago if you don't tip the driver they will give you a 1 star rating. Having in app tipping solves this problem.

Sounds like a cesspool. Remind me to not visit Chicago.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#309

Post by paul7986 »

Happy to see this as Uber allowed and per their PR laughed at it's users' back accounts getting hacked/losing money.

I had 1k stolen from my bank account via Uber and after my research showed...

- THey knew about these hacks happening ...about ten or more people a day

- Their PR was it's the users fault for choosing a weak password vs. doing a press release letting users know they need to change their passwords and offering 2 way verification

- You could not and probably still can not outright and quickly cancel your UBer account. No you have to send a message and I waited days to severe all any ties with them.

This happened to me and 1000s of others in 2015 per my search on Twitter then. Then in 2017 you see just how horrible this organization is ... it does not give at ratz ass about anyone who is not a KalaNick bro including employees, customers, drivers.. basically all groups it needs to operate and succeed.

Still wanting it to go down in flames and my 1k back into my bank account!!!

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#310

Post by Jare »

rmason wrote: post #12

Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors behind this horrid behavior. Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them. They pressure him into taking a sabbatical, then two days in they pull this cowardly act of firing him remotely. Not only was it a cowardly act, but it was the wrong thing to do for the business. It will lead to an epic destruction of value. Wo…

> Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors

I hope everyone pays attention to the identity of the people that invests in his next company.

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