Uber’s ex-boss wants to sell stake worth $1.4B

NEW YORK: Ousted Uber boss Travis Kalanick plans to sell 29 percent of his stake in the US ridesharing giant for about $1.4 billion, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

Kalanick, who co-founded the company and owns 10 percent of it, would sell the shares as part of the deal that will see a group of investors led by Japanese tech titan SoftBank acquire a major stake in Uber.

The new investment, which will be finalized in January, was based on calculations valuing Uber at $48 billion, Bloomberg said.

Uber is seeking to move past a series of scandals and missteps and reform its board structure as it gears up for a 2019 public share offering.

Kalanick was ousted as CEO in June, but retains a seat on Uber’s board.

Even as Uber has seen unprecedented growth by expanding to dozens of countries, it has been hurt by missteps including allegations of executive misconduct, a toxic work atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

It has also been sued by Waymo -- previously known as the Google self- driving car unit -- which says Uber swiped its technology.

According to Bloomberg, Kalanick initially wanted to sell up to half of his shares but was unable to do so under the terms of the deal with Uber’s new investors.