Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has resigned reportedly following a shareholder revolt, capping a tumultuous few months of PR disasters of its own making.
“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Kalanick said in a statement, cited by The New York Times and others. Bloomberg said he’d remain on the company’s board.
Last week Kalanick said he would take an indefinite leave of absence from the company to both work on himself amid a series of controversies as well as to mourn his late mother.
Here’s more from the Times on his resignation:
Mr. Kalanick’s exit [Tuesday] came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber’s investors, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details were confidential.
Earlier on Tuesday, five of Uber’s major investors demanded that the chief executive resign immediately. The investors included one of Uber’s biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber’s board. The investors made their demand for Mr. Kalanick to step down in a letter delivered to the chief executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with knowledge of the situation.
Tuesday’s move by the controversial CEO is the culmination of months of controversy that began when Kalanick agreed last December to serve on President Trump’s advisory council. But in February, following the president’s executive order on immigration—and public criticism of how Uber reacted to protests against the order—Kalanick resigned from the group.