Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has succeeded in moving an investor lawsuit to private arbitration.
James Martin/CNETUber co-founder Travis Kalanick has succeeded in having a court battle with one of the startup’s early investors moved to private arbitration.
Delaware Chancery Judge Sam Glasscock III on Wednesday granted Kalanick’s request for arbitration with Benchmark Capital while rejecting his bid to have the lawsuit dismissed, Bloomberg reported. The decision means a single arbitrator will decide whether Kalanick remains on the startup’s board.
Venture capital firm Benchmark Capital, which owns about 13 percent of Uber, filed a lawsuit earlier this month in Delaware, alleging that Kalanick misled Uber’s stockholders to gain control of three board seats. Kalanick has called the lawsuit a “personal attack” and said Benchmark pressured him into resigning in June.
A spokesman for Kalanick told Bloomberg the former CEO expects to win in arbitration and that Benchmark’s allegations have “unnecessarily harmed Uber and its shareholders.”
Benchmark couldn’t immediately be reached for comment but told Bloomberg that the “case is fundamentally a question of integrity and values and the facts will fully support Benchmark’s position.”
Benchmark has blamed Kalanick for a slew of scandals that have rocked the startup, including sexual harassment allegations that resulted in more than 20 Uber employees being fired. The company is also defending itself against a trade-secret theft lawsuit from Waymo, a self-driving car business run by Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Uber is also trying to have the Waymo lawsuit moved to private arbitration.
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