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Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

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Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#111

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

abiox wrote: post #105
SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least not beyond their own avoidance of wrongdoing Such as enforcing that people contracted to carry out work on their behalf do so in a manner that conforms to their ethical stands? A fund policing the habits of an investment is literally the people who own the business policing the actions of their employees -- I think most of us agree that a business has the right to enforce ethical standards on employees. >…

> A fund policing the habits of an investment is literally the people who own the business policing the actions of their employees this seems to be equivocating on "policing". > That has nothing to do with indemnifying someone from the financial consequences of their actions you stated "criminal actions". if kalanick committed a crime, it is the state that pursues this in court. afaik all that is occurring is that be…

> if kalanick committed a crime, it is the state that pursues this in court

That's actually not how it works -- there can be both civil and criminal proceedings for a case, and very often criminal proceedings follow a complaint by a victim. The criminal proceedings deals with punishments related to breaking the law; the civil proceedings deal with damages caused to people (or businesses) by the crimes.

Also, indemnification has nothing to do with prosecution versus civil suit -- it's an agreement to pay the damages and fines related to the person's actions.

> suggesting private entities pursue criminals and "fight crime", perhaps as some form of vigilantism

They absolutely should!

By filing complaints and suing for damages that result from the actions of criminals -- which is what the fund is doing here.

A criminal may still be liable for damages via civil suit even if there's a lack of prosecution or an acquittal. People can (and should!) make use of the courts to pursue criminals.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#112

Post by zxcvvcxz »

> Benchmark argues that it never would have granted Kalanick those three extra seats had it known about his "gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber"

Buyer's remorse! Investors think they deserve so much power because they put capital upfront and understand how to play the legal system to their benefit, while more industrious actors are busy actually building the value of the company.

Yeah and I can tell the folks at Benchmark about a bunch of guys I knew who wish they never would've gotten married. Oh well, when you take your vows... Till death do you part ;)

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#113

Post by joering2 »

tim333 wrote: post #88
joering2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didnt get this news. First when it broke he and board explained its due to his morher passing. Now im confused as of what really transpired.

There was talk about leaving temporarily before the shareholder revolt kicked in.

Its disapotiing to keep being downvoted just because im wrong. would love to see all these people im sure they never been wrong in their life.

anyways Travis said himself he is leaving Uber because his mother just died, which was not a lie. And I believe when your mother dies you need time to grief and its perfectly fine to take time off.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#114

Post by blazespin »

geofft wrote: post #76
uhhhhhhh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>travis + allies being more long term His actions and bad management hardly seem long term based thinking. While you could be right that is his intention, his actions to date, the bad management issues well documented, or his possible participation in fraud, to the antagonistic business practices hardly seem the best "long term" approaches.

I was gonna say. Surely Travis and his allies are interested in Uber's long-term success, yes, but that's a very different claim from them being good for Uber's long-term success.

It's possible that Travis wants to regain control and suck out equity into this personal stake. Greedy mofo.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#115

Post by matt4077 »

btown wrote: post #107
uhhhhhhh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>travis + allies being more long term His actions and bad management hardly seem long term based thinking. While you could be right that is his intention, his actions to date, the bad management issues well documented, or his possible participation in fraud, to the antagonistic business practices hardly seem the best "long term" approaches.

Not to defend his actions, but to consider his possible mindset in doing them: His actions could be explained as pushing hard to build a defensive moat against a world allied against Uber as quickly as possible. If regardless of what you do you lose a bit of PR here and there, you get kicked out of cities here and there, and you have to pay a few hundred million in settlements here and there, you might as well throw…

What ultimately got him wasn't his "maverick rule-bending to compete against the establishment".

He created this bro-themed caricature of a corporate culture, and he did so for no reason other than enjoying that sort of atmosphere, or being incompetent to stop it. Or both.

Let's not start some sort of myth of martyrdom around Kalanick by conflating these two. Although, yes, this strategy of braking local regulations and expecting to win a power struggle with every government anywhere was also on its last leg when he left, and would've gotten to him as well, sooner or later.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#116

Post by foobarian »

throwawy11111 wrote: post #61

Benchmarks in a bind and at war with travis; they need to liquidate their stake in next year or two. Softbank deal to buy out their shares fell apart in part b/c no CEO. Benchmark wants safe-hands leader who will cost-cut firesale their way to quick IPO. travis + allies being more long term; blocking benchmarks CEO picks (meg). so board civil war continues with benchmarks dirty tricks like this sour grapes lawsuit an…

How in the world do you have this kind of detailed insight?

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#117

Post by prostoalex »

iamtherhino wrote: post #102
calpaterson wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From crunchbase ( https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/benchmark/investment... ) it looks like Benchmark made three investments in Uber, the last of which was in 2013. The funds that VCs raise normally only operate for a specific term of eg 5 years, so now is the kind of time they will want to get out. Incidentally from what I can make of their investments in Uber on crunchbase, they need Uber's market cap to be $…

I think you dropped a 0. 0.13*31BN = ~$4BN, still a 10X return if they've invested $400M.

It's likely not distributed evenly between their three investments (and perhaps three separate funds), and with the late-stage checks typically being larger, it might impact the ROI of that late-stage fund more severely.

I don't really think the urgency is there, though, VCs have been dealing with illiquid companies for decades, if they need to wind down the fund, they will either distribute the shares directly to the LPs or create a placeholder SPV and distribute partnership interests.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#118

Post by shostack »

taurath wrote: post #97
nthcolumn wrote: post #85

Before Travis got booted some Techcrunch article or other was submitted here on an almost daily basis about him and other issues Uber were having, some days two! I thought to myself: 'Boy! Techcrunch really have it in for Uber and Travis' (mit einen kleine schadenfreude, me being no fan of either). Once he left though, the posts seemed to me to end rather abruptly even though there were still newsworthy shenanigans a…

TechCrunch is owned by AOL, which also owns the Huffpo. Arianna Huffington is a board member of Uber - she stepped down from editorial work at Huffpo/AOL media group in 2016, but I"m sure she has a lot of influence on her namesake. This is totally unsubstantiated but there's generally a lot of mucking about at the board level of high profile companies like this.

If you or others have links to resources on board politics and how that world works, I'd love to learn more. Having never held a board seat, it is a fascinating, yet still mysterious world to me, and it seems like the truthful accounts of what happens in that world are kept as private as possible.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#119

Post by prostoalex »

cft wrote: post #64
gjem97 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do they "need" to liquidate in the next year or two?

Prob because the lifetime of the fund that invested is coming to an end? It's usually 10 years

It is perfectly reasonable to distribute illiquid shares of a private company at the end of the fund lifetime.

Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud

#120

Post by arkitaip »

foobarian wrote: post #116
throwawy11111 wrote: post #61

Benchmarks in a bind and at war with travis; they need to liquidate their stake in next year or two. Softbank deal to buy out their shares fell apart in part b/c no CEO. Benchmark wants safe-hands leader who will cost-cut firesale their way to quick IPO. travis + allies being more long term; blocking benchmarks CEO picks (meg). so board civil war continues with benchmarks dirty tricks like this sour grapes lawsuit an…

How in the world do you have this kind of detailed insight?

the call is coming from inside the uber
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