In what is rapidly devolving into an all-out brawl on the board of the world’s highest-valued private company, a group of Uber shareholders have asked the..
In what is rapidly devolving into an all-out brawl on the board of the world’s highest-valued private company, a group of Uber shareholders have asked the venture capital firm Benchmark to step down from the board of directors, Axios reports.
This move comes only a day after Benchmark took the aggressive step of filing suit against Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick, arguing that the founder had violated his fiduciary duty to the company and had committed fraud by seeking to “increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends.” Their suit is seeking to remove Kalanick from the board and reduce his role at the company.
The email request, signed by Shervin Pishervar of Sherpa Capital, Ron Burkle of Yucaipa Companies and Adam Leber of Maverick, criticizes the manner in which Benchmark demanded Kalanick’s resignation and their subsequent lawsuit against him.
“… We do not feel it was either prudent or necessary from the standpoint of shareholder value, to hold the company hostage to a public relations disaster by demanding Mr. Kalanick’s resignation, along with other concessions, ” the letter says in part. “Accordingly, we would request that Benchmark help the Company realize its full potential by allowing the necessary work to be done in the Board Room rather than the Courtroom.”
The group further requests that Benchmark divests enough of their Uber shares (currently valued at $8.4 billion) to lose their board appointment rights. TechCrunch has reached out to Benchmark and Sherpa Capital for more details.
Uber declined to comment on the report.
Uber’s board of directors will reportedly be meeting later today. Below is the full text of the email obtained by Axios, which was sent this morning:
