Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick sells nearly $705 million of his shares in the company.
James Martin/CNET
Uber’s two co-founders have let go of some of the millions of shares they own in the ride-hailing company. Over the past two weeks, Travis Kalanick has sold more than 26 million shares, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s nearly 27% of his stake in Uber, worth nearly $705 million based on today’s stock price. And to a lesser degree, Garrett Camp has sold 510,000 shares, worth roughly $13.6 million.
Uber investors and employees were first able to sell their shares in the company two weeks ago when its initial public offering lockup period ended. While many early investors said they’d hold onto their shares, others flooded the market, causing Uber’s stock to hit record lows.
The company’s shares haven’t traded higher than $27 since then — roughly 40% lower than Uber’s IPO price of $45.
Uber has experienced a bruising as a public company. Since its debut on Wall Street in May, its share price has slumped, three board members stepped down, and it’s seen an exodus of executives. Its chief product officer, Manik Gupta, announced Monday he’s also leaving the company. Uber additionally has laid off about 5% of its staff in three rounds of cuts.
The optics around both of the company’s co-founders selling millions worth of shares isn’t likely to help investor confidence.
It isn’t clear why Kalanick and Camp sold some of their shares; neither returned a request for comment. But they both still own large stakes in the company. Uber had roughly 1.7 billion shares when it went public, according to SEC filings. Of those, Kalanick still owns more than 71 million shares and Camp owns more than 73 million. They also both sit on Uber’s board of directors.
Neither Kalanick nor Camp work for Uber anymore. Camp left the company when it was still a nascent ride-hailing service. Kalanick’s departure in 2017 was much more dramatic.
After six months of scandals — including a #DeleteUber movement, allegations of a chaotic corporate culture that OK’d sexual harassment and a lawsuit brought by Waymo claiming Uber stole its self-driving car tech — Kalanick was forced to step down. Current Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi came on two months later in August 2017.
Since his ouster at Uber, Kalanick bought a controlling stake in a real estate venture called City Storage Systems. He’s since narrowed his focus on a restaurant delivery business within the company called CloudKitchens.
Kalanick reportedly raised $400 million from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund for CloudKitchens last January, according to the Wall Street Journal. This was the fund’s first known investment in a tech company since journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Both a CIA and UN investigation reportedly found that the Saudi government was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder. Several high-level CEOs have reportedly backed off dealings with the country since then, but it doesn’t appear to have affected Kalanick’s relationship with the Saudi government.
Uber didn’t respond to a request for comment.