Uber Selects Expedia Chief Dara Khosrowshahi As Its Next CEO

Just nine hours after Jeff Immelt tweeted that he was no longer in the race to be Uber"s next CEO, moments ago Uber"s board selected Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, 48, various news outlets report. According to Recode, the board selected the "third candidate", one who was not only an unknown until now, but one who as the photo below shows, is also not a woman despite his beguiling first name and the board"s rumored prerogative to pick a female next leader.

Dara Khosrowshahi, current CEO of Expedia

In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The Board has voted and will announce the decision to the employees first.”  If he accepts, he would be replacing founder Travis Kalanick and interim CEO Ariana Huffington.

The decision appears to have stumped everyone, including Recode"s Kara Swisher who writes that "what that means is anyone’s guess, and sources close to one of the remaining possible CEO picks — Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman — said she has not been informed of any choice nor had the board agreed to some the the things she was asking for to take the job. Whitman was asking for a number of things, including less involvement of ousted CEO Travis Kalanick."

As the NYT adds, Jeff Immelt, a finalst until this morning, withdrew when it became clear that he did not enough have support. Recode adds that "Immelt dropped out of the running this morning, with sources close to his thinking calling the process totally “dysfunctional” (and worse)."

And while the board was leaning toward Meg Whitman, the chief of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, "matters changed over the course of Sunday afternoon and the board decided on Mr. Khosrowshahi" according to the NYT.

While not much is known about Dara Khosrowshahi, and why the board thinks the Expedia chief can successfully replace Travis Kalanick as head of the world"s most valuable private company, what is known is that under Khosrowshahi, Expedia was one of the first tech companies to file a legal challenge against Trump"s travel ban, citing the potential harm it could do its employees and customers. As such, the Iranian-American appears to be high on the #resistance totem. His anti-Trump bias was further exposed in his year end note to employees, in which he said he wants to send "just a big thank you to our global employee base for an improved 2016 and certainly an improved end to the year. And hopefully we will all be alive to see the end of next year."

Some further background:

Dara Khosrowshahi has served as CEO of Expedia, Inc., since August 2005. Since that time, Expedia has extended its global presence to more than 60 countries worldwide through Expedia, Hotels.com, and Hotwire online booking brands, and the travel community sites of TripAdvisor Media Network. Ten years later, in 2015, Expedia awarded him $90 million worth of stock options as part of a long-term employment agreement, stating he would stay until 2020. 

Before joining Expedia, Khosrowshahi served as the CEO of IAC Travel. Khosrowshahi worked at Allen & Company from 1991 to 1998, and as its vice president from 1995 to 1998. He is also a board director for BET.com, Hotels.com and several other companies.

In February 2015, the New York Times Company announced Khosrowshahi as one of two new nominees for its board of directors. He will formally stand for election at the annual meeting of stockholders on May 6, 2015. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of the New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Company praised Khosrowshahi"s "comprehensive digital and international experience, as well as significant financial expertise".

The search for Uber"s new CEO had been riven by scandal and discord, especially between former CEO Kalanick and Benchmark, the VC firm that is a major Uber shareholder and that also has a seat on Uber’s board. Both Kalanick and Benchmark had their own preferred candidates for a new chief. Benchmark recently sued Kalanick to try and force him off the board.

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Uber President Quits After Allegedly Deciding Series Of Scandals Were Just Too Much

Jeff Jones, the former Target CMO who joined Uber less than a year ago as President of Silicon Valley"s priciest "decacorn", is leaving the company, according to Recode.  Jones is reportedly exiting as the company deals with a flurry of recent controversies, including allegations of sexual harassment and an embarrassing video that surfaced last month of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick berating an Uber driver.  Kalanick also recently announced a search for a COO to help him better steer the ship, though it"s unclear whether the layering of the executive management team affected Jones" decision to leave.  Per Recode:

Jeff Jones, the president of Uber, is quitting the car-hailing company after less than a year. The move by the No. 2 exec, said sources, is directly related to the multiple controversies there, including explosive charges of sexism and sexual harassment.

Jones, said sources, determined that this was not the situation he signed on for, especially after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced a search for a new COO to help him right the very troubled ship.

That was not the reason for Jones’ departure, sources said, even though it meant that Kalanick was bringing in a new exec who could outrank him. Instead, these sources said, Jones determined that the situation at the company was more problematic than he realized.

Jones spent much of the beginning of his tenure as president meeting with drivers and attempting to address the concerns of the people that serve as the face of the company.  In the earlier months of his tenure he penned a letter to drivers saying, "It’s clear that there’s much we can be doing better. Listening is where we get our best ideas, because they come from you, the people using Uber every day."

Of course, any goodwill that was potentially built with drivers through Jones efforts was likely quickly erased by a 3:50 video posted last month by one driver who captured his heated exchange with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick on video and subsequently shared it with Bloomberg.  The conversation started off with the driver complaining that Uber was "raising the standards, and dropping the prices" and culminated with Kalanick storming out of the car after condescendingly telling the driver to "take responsibility for his own shit."

 “Bullshit.  Some people don"t like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!”

Of course that latest mishap, just added to what has already been a relatively rough couple of months for Uber which has included everything from patent infringement lawsuits to sexual harassment charges to Kalanick being forced to resign from Trump"s business advisory council.  Per Bloomberg:

In December, Uber pulled its self-driving cars off the road in San Francisco after the California Department of Motor Vehicles said they were operating illegally without an autonomous vehicle license. In January, more than 200,000 people uninstalled their accounts, and #DeleteUber trended on Twitter, after the company was accused of undermining a New York taxi union strike protesting President Donald Trump’s refugee ban. On Feb. 2, Kalanick reluctantly left his spot on Trump’s business advisory council to appease the company’s liberal-leaning employees and users—not to mention its many immigrant drivers. On Feb. 19, a former software engineer at Uber wrote a blog post alleging that she had been propositioned for sex by her manager and that when she’d taken the issue to human resources, an HR rep had said that he wouldn’t be punished, in part, because he was a “high performer.” On Feb. 23, Alphabet’s autonomous car company Waymo sued Uber and its self-driving car company Otto, accusing an Uber employee of stealing trade secrets by downloading 14,000 files onto an external hard drive. On Monday, Uber’s head of engineering resigned after the company said it learned that he had faced a sexual harassment complaint at Alphabet, his former employer. He denied the allegations.

Uber has not yet confirmed Jones" departure.

Uber's CEO Wants You To Know He's "Ashamed" Of Leaked Video Footage; Says He Needs To "Grow Up"

Last night, following the video leak of a combative exchange between Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his driver over Uber"s fare structure, which culminated with Kalanick suggesting that his driver should "take responsibility for his own shit", we asked: "So, where should we set the over/under on Kalanick"s remaining tenure with Uber?"

Fast forward less than 24 hours and it"s clear that Kalanick is feeling the pressure after sending an apology email to Uber staff saying that he"s "ashamed" of his comments and clearly needs to "grow up" and seek "leadership help." Per the Financial Times:

“To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement,” Mr Kalanick said in an email to Uber staff.

“My job as your leader is to lead . . . and that starts with behaving in a way that makes us all proud. That is not what I did, and it cannot be explained away.”

He added: “It’s clear this video is a reflection of me and the criticism we’ve received is a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up. This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it.”

Mr Kalanick apologised to “the driver and rider community, and to the Uber team”.

Sure, because the best place to "grow up" and learn how to be a good "leader" is at the helm of a $60 billion company.

* * *

For those who missed it, here is what we wrote about Kalanick"s leaked video:

Earlier this month, on Superbowl Sunday, in fact, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick hopped into an Uber Black Car with two female companions for what he thought would be just another easy trip to the destination of his choice.  Unfortunately, this particular ride got a little more complicated than he had hoped when his driver, 37-year-old Fawzi Kamel, decided to confront him on Uber"s falling fares, which he alleged had cost him a total of $97,000 and forced him into bankruptcy.  After the ride, Kamel rated Kalanick at 1-star and submitted his recorded conversation with the confrontational CEO to Bloomberg. 

The first 3 minutes and 50 seconds of the video is nothing more than a series of awkward exchanges between Kalanick and his special lady friends along with a series of random body gyrations to the tune of Maroon 5"s "Don"t Wanna Know". 

That said, things start to heat up when one of the young ladies implies that Uber is having a rough year financially (she must be a reader).  Of course, Kalanick responds by implying that burning hundreds of millions of dollars annually is all part of his master plan:

“I make sure every year is a hard year.  That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy I’m not pushing hard enough.”

But things really get interesting when Kalanick"s driver decides to confront him on falling Uber fares:

Kamel: “You’re raising the standards, and you’re dropping the prices.”

Kalanick: “We’re not dropping the prices on black.”

Kamel: “But in general the whole price is—”

Kalanick: “We have to; we have competitors; otherwise, we’d go out of business.”

Kamel: “Competitors? Man, you had the business model in your hands. You could have the prices you want, but you choose to buy everybody a ride.”

Kalanick: “No, no no. You misunderstand me. We started high-end. We didn’t go low-end because we wanted to. We went low-end because we had to because we’d be out of business.”

Kamel: “What? Lyft? It’s a piece of cake right there.”

Kalanick: “It seems like a piece of cake because I’ve beaten them. But if I didn’t do the things I did, we would have been beaten, I promise.”

Kamel: “But people are not trusting you anymore. … I lost $97,000 because of you. I"m bankrupt because of you. Yes, yes, yes. You keep changing every day. You keep changing every day.”

Kalanick: “Hold on a second, what have I changed about Black? What have I changed?”

Kamel: “You changed the whole business. You dropped the prices.”

Kalanick:  “Bullshit.  Some people don"t like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!”

We must admit that we"re somewhat perplexed by Kamel"s argument as Uber fares, now and in the future, are clearly headed in precisely one direction, irrespective of who"s sitting in the CEO"s chair, and that is, well, down...but it makes for good entertainment anyway.

Fast forward to the 3:50 mark for the fireworks:

As Bloomberg points out, this incident just adds to what has already been a relatively rough couple of months for Uber which has included everything from patent infringement lawsuits to sexual harassment charges to Kalanick being forced to resign from Trump"s business advisory council.

In December, Uber pulled its self-driving cars off the road in San Francisco after the California Department of Motor Vehicles said they were operating illegally without an autonomous vehicle license. In January, more than 200,000 people uninstalled their accounts, and #DeleteUber trended on Twitter, after the company was accused of undermining a New York taxi union strike protesting President Donald Trump’s refugee ban. On Feb. 2, Kalanick reluctantly left his spot on Trump’s business advisory council to appease the company’s liberal-leaning employees and users—not to mention its many immigrant drivers. On Feb. 19, a former software engineer at Uber wrote a blog post alleging that she had been propositioned for sex by her manager and that when she’d taken the issue to human resources, an HR rep had said that he wouldn’t be punished, in part, because he was a “high performer.” On Feb. 23, Alphabet’s autonomous car company Waymo sued Uber and its self-driving car company Otto, accusing an Uber employee of stealing trade secrets by downloading 14,000 files onto an external hard drive. On Monday, Uber’s head of engineering resigned after the company said it learned that he had faced a sexual harassment complaint at Alphabet, his former employer. He denied the allegations.

So, where should we set the over/under on Kalanick"s remaining tenure with Uber?

Caught On Tape: Uber CEO Argues With Driver Over Declining Fares - "Take Responsibility For Your Own Shit"

Earlier this month, on Superbowl Sunday, in fact, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick hopped into an Uber Black Car with two female companions for what he thought would be just another easy trip to the destination of his choice.  Unfortunately, this particular ride got a little more complicated than he had hoped when his driver, 37-year-old Fawzi Kamel, decided to confront him on Uber"s falling fares, which he alleged had cost him a total of $97,000 and forced him into bankruptcy.  After the ride, Kamel rated Kalanick at 1-star and submitted his recorded conversation with the confrontational CEO to Bloomberg. 

The first 3 minutes and 50 seconds of the video is nothing more than a series of awkward exchanges between Kalanick and his special lady friends along with a series of random body gyrations to the tune of Maroon 5"s "Don"t Wanna Know". 

That said, things start to heat up when one of the young ladies implies that Uber is having a rough year financially (she must be a reader).  Of course, Kalanick responds by implying that burning hundreds of millions of dollars annually is all part of his master plan:

“I make sure every year is a hard year.  That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy I’m not pushing hard enough.”

But things really get interesting when Kalanick"s driver decides to confront him on falling Uber fares:

Kamel: “You’re raising the standards, and you’re dropping the prices.”

Kalanick: “We’re not dropping the prices on black.”

Kamel: “But in general the whole price is—”

Kalanick: “We have to; we have competitors; otherwise, we’d go out of business.”

Kamel: “Competitors? Man, you had the business model in your hands. You could have the prices you want, but you choose to buy everybody a ride.”

Kalanick: “No, no no. You misunderstand me. We started high-end. We didn’t go low-end because we wanted to. We went low-end because we had to because we’d be out of business.”

Kamel: “What? Lyft? It’s a piece of cake right there.”

Kalanick: “It seems like a piece of cake because I’ve beaten them. But if I didn’t do the things I did, we would have been beaten, I promise.”

Kamel: “But people are not trusting you anymore. … I lost $97,000 because of you. I"m bankrupt because of you. Yes, yes, yes. You keep changing every day. You keep changing every day.”

Kalanick: “Hold on a second, what have I changed about Black? What have I changed?”

Kamel: “You changed the whole business. You dropped the prices.”

Kalanick:  “Bullshit.  Some people don"t like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!”

We must admit that we"re somewhat perplexed by Kamel"s argument as Uber fares, now and in the future, are clearly headed in precisely one direction, irrespective of who"s sitting in the CEO"s chair, and that is, well, down...but it makes for good entertainment anyway.

Fast forward to the 3:50 mark for the fireworks:

As Bloomberg points out, this incident just adds to what has already been a relatively rough couple of months for Uber which has included everything from patent infringement lawsuits to sexual harassment charges to Kalanick being forced to resign from Trump"s business advisory council.

In December, Uber pulled its self-driving cars off the road in San Francisco after the California Department of Motor Vehicles said they were operating illegally without an autonomous vehicle license. In January, more than 200,000 people uninstalled their accounts, and #DeleteUber trended on Twitter, after the company was accused of undermining a New York taxi union strike protesting President Donald Trump’s refugee ban. On Feb. 2, Kalanick reluctantly left his spot on Trump’s business advisory council to appease the company’s liberal-leaning employees and users—not to mention its many immigrant drivers. On Feb. 19, a former software engineer at Uber wrote a blog post alleging that she had been propositioned for sex by her manager and that when she’d taken the issue to human resources, an HR rep had said that he wouldn’t be punished, in part, because he was a “high performer.” On Feb. 23, Alphabet’s autonomous car company Waymo sued Uber and its self-driving car company Otto, accusing an Uber employee of stealing trade secrets by downloading 14,000 files onto an external hard drive. On Monday, Uber’s head of engineering resigned after the company said it learned that he had faced a sexual harassment complaint at Alphabet, his former employer. He denied the allegations.

So where should we set the over/under on Kalanick"s remaining tenure with Uber?