Benchmark sues to kick Uber’s former CEO off board

Ex-Uber Technologies Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick duped investor Benchmark into allowing him to fill three of the company’s board seats, according to a lawsuit fi led Thursday calling for his ouster as a company director.

The lawsuit is the culmination of a bitter fi ght between Benchmark and Kalanick. Bill Gurley, a partner at the venture capital firm, led an effort to oust Kalanick as CEO in June. Benchmark, an early Uber backer with a 13 percent stake in the company, says Kalanick sought to pack the board with allies willing to keep him as a director af- ter he was removed.

“Kalanick acquired a disproportionate level of inf luence over the Board, ensuring that he would continue to have an outsized role in Uber’s strategic direction even if forced to resign as CEO,” lawyers for Benchmark said in the complaint fi led in Delaware Chancery Court.

Uber declined to comment. Jimmy Asci, a spokesman for Kalanick, said the lawsuit is “completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations.”

“This is continued evidence of Benchmark acting in its own best interests contrary to the interests of Uber, its employees and its other shareholders,” Asci

said in an email. “Benchmark’s lawsuit is a transparent attempt to deprive Travis Kalanick of his rights as a founder and shareholder and to silence his voice regarding the management of the company he helped create.”

A series of scandals have thrown Uber into upheaval this year, including protests over ties to the Trump administration and accusations that the company’s workplace is hostile to women.