Several news outlets have been reporting that Meg Whitman, a longtime lioness of the Silicon Valley elite and chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, now has the inside track on getting the…
The search for a replacement for ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick may soon be over, according to several media reports.
Several news outlets reported Sunday that Meg Whitman, a longtime lioness of the Silicon Valley elite and chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, now has the inside track on getting the job. The New York Times attributed the scoop to “two people with knowledge of the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details were confidential.”
The eight members of Uber’s board of directors were reportedly meeting over the weekend, trying to wrap up a months-long search to replace Kalanick, the brash and tough-talking young CEO who helped make the ride-sharing startup a household word around the world and a company now valued at $50 billion.
Under Kalanick’s watch, which ended June 20, Uber also came to represent a troubled work culture saddled with sexual-harassment complaints.
The Times’ two sources said the board is planning to vote on the choice in the next few hours, but that Whitman had not yet been offered the position as of Sunday morning. “The situation remains fluid, ” said the report, as “board members and investors have been feuding over issues including board control.”
After narrowing the slate of CEO candidates to three people, the board was now getting close to a decision. One of the final candidates, Jeffrey R. Immelt, the former chief executive of General Electric, posted on Twitter on Sunday that he had “decided not to pursue a leadership position at Uber.”
Immelt did not explain why he was dropping out of the race, but two people told the Times that the former GE chief did not have enough board votes to win the job.
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that Whitman had given a presentation to Uber’s board on Saturday about the CEO role, according to a person familiar with the matter, despite her public denials of interest in the job.
Whitman could not be reached for comment on Sunday, and an HPE spokesman declined to comment to the Journal.
The Journal reported that candidates now include Whitman and a lesser-known male chief executive whose name couldn’ t immediately be learned, people familiar with the matter said.
