Glenn CHAPMAN -
Uber appeared to have found a new hand to steady the wheel at the smartphone-summoned ride service, which has skidded from one controversy to another.
Uber has yet to confirm reports that Dara Khosrowshahi to replace ousted Travis Kalanick as chief at the San Francisco-based startup.
However, Expedia board chairman Barry Diller appeared to confirm the choice in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“As you probably know by now, Dara Khosrowshahi has been asked to lead Uber,” read a copy of a memo from Expedia board chairman Barry Diller to Expedia employees included in an SEC filing.
“Nothing has been yet finalised, but having extensively discussed this with Dara I believe it is his intention to accept.”
Khosrowshahi is known as an experienced top executive, willing to speak his mind and to advocate for women getting equal pay and leadership opportunities.
His most recent Twitter post criticises US President Donald Trump for his response to a white supremacist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville.
“I keep waiting for the moment when our Prez will rise to the expectations of his office and he fails, repeatedly,” Khosrowshahi said the tweet, which included a link to a story about the Trump controversy.
Born in Iran, Khosrowshahi immigrated to the United States with his family as a child and became a citizen here.
Expedia shares have climbed more than five-fold during the 12 years Khosrowshahi has been in charge of the travel services Internet firm.
Whoever takes charge at Uber will face challenges including conflicts with regulators and taxi operators; a cut-throat company culture, and board members feuding with investors over Kalanick.
Kalanick was the driving force behind Uber, taking a spur-of-moment idea and turning it into the world’s most valuable venture-funded tech startup.
But his brash personality and freewheeling management style made him a liability as well as an asset to the global ridesharing giant, and in June he stepped down as chief executive.
Kalanick, who turned 41 this month, frequently recounts how the idea behind Uber was born, when he and a colleague were attending a technology conference in Paris in 2008 and failed to find a taxi on a cold night.
Uber now operates in hundreds of cities and more than 80 countries.
But the hard-charging style that helped Uber succeed also made Kalanick a target for critics. He has borne responsibility for allegations of nasty workplace tactics and covert use of law enforcement-evading software.
Dents to Uber’s image include a visit by executives to a South Korean escort-karaoke bar, an attempt to dig up dirt on journalists covering the company, and the mishandling of medical records from a woman assaulted in India after hailing an Uber ride.
Good news for a new Uber chief will be that the company’s financial engine appears to be purring despite its dented image.
Earnings figures showed that adjusted net revenue was $1.75 billion in the second quarter, more than doubling from about $800 million in the same period in 2016.
Gross bookings at the leading smartphone-summoned ride service doubled as the number of trips climbed 150 per cent from a year earlier.
The company’s adjusted net loss fell nearly 14 per cent to $645 million from the same quarter last year, Uber confirmed.
Meanwhile, Uber drivers have earned $50 million in tips since a gratuity option was added to the ride-sharing application in June. Uber has also been investing in autonomous driving technology, and provoked a lawsuit from the former Google car unit now called Waymo that accused Uber of stealing trade secrets.
Some mutual funds have reportedly marked down their stakes in Uber in a sign that months of scandal were taking a toll on the private company’s value of some $68 billion.— AFP
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