In June 2017, Kalanick resigned from his position as Uber CEO.
Bloomberg reports that Kalanick’s resignation was to be presented as a graceful departure. Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 363) reports that Kalanick and investors had agreed to tell the press — falsely! — that Kalanick decided, on his own, to step down.
But a detailed New York Times article revealed the departure as the ousting it actually was. See also Investors asked Kalanick to resign.
Bill Gurley, a partner at Benchmark Capital and an early investor, became increasingly concerned about Uber’s tactics and activities. Bloomberg reports that he worried his firm’s investment in Uber, at that point nominally worth billions of dollars, could go to zero.
After the Uber board forced Kalanick to take leave, Bloomberg reported that other executives and board members suspected that Uber board member Arianna Huffington was serving as his proxy.
After being caught on video arguing with Uber driver Fawzi Kamel, Kalanick sought to meet with the driver again to try to make things right. Bloomberg reports that Kalanick had planned to meet with the driver briefly, as little as five minutes, for a simple apology. Instead, the meeting lasted more than an hour, and Kamel and Kalanick reopened their debate about Uber’s pricing policies.
As part of the discussion, Kalanick suggested that he give the driver Uber stock. Uber attorneys rejected the proposal, seeing it as improper that Uber shareholders pay to clean up Kalanick’s personal problem. Kalanick ended up paying Kamel $200,000 of personal funds.
The European Court of Justice (the highest court in Europe) held that Uber is a transportation service, which may therefore be regulated by each country in Europe. The ECJ explained:
The service provided by Uber connecting individuals with non-professional drivers is covered by services in the field of transport. Member states can, therefore, regulate the conditions for providing that service.
In contrast, Uber had argued that the company was an information technology service, subject only to Europe-wide regulation and exempt from national law.
A December 2017 letter confirmed a “pending criminal investigation” against Uber by the US Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of California. This was the first official confirmation of such an investigation.
The letter indicated that the US Attorney’s Office had interviewed ex-Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs. See Jacobs’ allegations.
Shervin Pishevar, one of the earliest investors in Uber, resigned from his investment firm (and hence ended his affiliation with Uber) in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct. He denied the allegations.
In November 2017, Bloomberg reported that five women had accused Pishevar of using his position to make unwanted sexual advances.
Uber was temporarily banned in Delhi, India in December 2014 after a driver allegedly took a passenger to a secluded area and raped her. The decision followed mounting accusations that the company had failed to conduct proper background checks on drivers.
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 188) presents the incident in greater detail: The driver noticed that the passenger had fallen asleep, and raped her in the back seat of his vehicle. Afterwards, he threatened to murder her if she told the police.
The city of Sheffield, UK suspended Uber’s license. Uber said this was an “administrative error” resulting from the company’s failure to change the name on its license based on the departure of the company’s UK head. Sheffield said such a change is not permitted, while Uber said it successfully made this change in other jurisdictions.