Former Uber CEO continues stock dump
Kalanick, who remains on the board, unloads shares as ride hailer struggles
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has dumped $711 million worth of shares in the company since last week, when restrictions on selling by early investors were lifted.
Kalanick, who was ousted as CEO but remains on the San Francisco company’s board, unloaded about $164 million worth of shares this week, according to a filing submitted Wednesday to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week beginning Nov. 6, the day of the lockup expiration, he sold $547 million worth of stock, according to a filing Friday.
“This is a gut punch for investors and speaks to the lockup issues plaguing Uber’s stock, with Travis not helping things as he heads for the exits,” said Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities, on Thursday.
Uber stock has fallen more than 37% since its initial public offering in May amid questions about when the 10-yearold ride-hailing company will finally turn a profit. (Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says it will in 2021.) The company is also facing regulatory pressure, including in its home state of California, which this year passed a law related to worker classification that could upend the contractor-dependent gig economy. That law takes effect in January, and the company and others have launched a campaign to fight it by attempting to place the issue on the state ballot next November.
Uber shares fell 4% the day of the lockup expiration last week. Thursday, shares declined 2.7% to $25.99.
After the eight transactions this week and last, Kalanick has a remaining 71.6 million shares in the company, a 4.2% stake that’s worth about $1.9 billion. The 43-year-old’s total wealth stands at $3.1 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time
billionaire tracker.
Kalanick was forced to step down from the chief executive role in June 2017 after a scandal- plagued tenure that included runins with regulators and law enforcement, plus accusations of sexual harassment and more at the company. Since then, he has founded a startup called CloudKitchens, a company that has been buying real estate to provide restaurants with kitchen space. The Los Angelesbased company has landed $ 400 million in funding from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.