For Uber, it appears that the game is Team Travis Kalanick (the ousted CEO), Team Anti-Travis Kalanick, and Team End Drama. The latest one to fall victim to Team End Drama: media mogul Arianna Huffington.
Uber investor Benchmark Capital wants to remove Huffington from Uber's board of directors, Recodereported Tuesday. The tech outlet cited a letter fellow Uber investor Shervin Pisheva had sent to Benchmark, who sued Kalanick last week.
SEE ALSO:Uber hit with even more drama after scandalous lawsuit“Based on a conversation with a representative of Lowercase Capital, we have learned that Benchmark also desires to remove Arianna Huffington from the Board of Directors and have made quite derogatory remarks about her,” Pishevar wrote in the letter, obtained by Recode.
Huffington and Kalanick have been friends for years. "From the start of our friendship it was obvious that she believes deeply in our mission: transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere for everyone," Kalanick wrote in a blog post announcement on Huffington joining the board in April 2016.
But now, some Uber investors have turned on Kalanick, seeing him as an enemy who is not best for the company's future. Benchmark sued Kalanick for fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty.
“Resorting to litigation was an extremely difficult step for Benchmark. But the Holder report cannot be ignored,” a Benchmark spokesperson sent in a statement to Recode, referencing the investigation in Uber's culture issues by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
"Failing to act now would mean endorsing behavior that is utterly unacceptable in any company, let alone a company of Uber's size and importance," the statement continued.
Huffington had been quite vocal about her support for Kalanick even after the scandals, including Susan Fowler's blog post about the company's toxic workplace culture and reports on his team stealing media records of a rape victim in India.
Kalanick is also at the center of a lawsuit from Google's self-driving car operation Waymo, alleging that he and Uber's former head of self driving technology stole intellectual property from the tech giant. And yet, Huffington spoke to the media and to Uber employees about her confidence in him as a leader before he was ousted as CEO.
"Travis spoke very honestly about the mistakes he’s made — and about how he wants to take the events of the last 48-hours to build a better Uber," Huffington said in a statement after an all-hands meeting following Fowler's blog post in February.
Beyond her support of Kalanick and her other commitments like media company Thrive Global, Huffington has continued to support Uber. She was instrumental in hiring Bozoma Saint John, formerly an executive at Apple who now serves as Uber's first-ever chief brand officer, The New York Timesreported.
Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pishevar is advocating for Benchmark to remove themselves from the board, to divest their shares in the company, and to drop the lawsuit against Kalanick.
It's not just drama among the board of directors. Many top executives have left the ride-hailing giant over the last six months, many of whom were Kalanick advocates.
Credit: Bob al-greene/mashableRyan Graves, Uber's first employee and first CEO prior to Kalanick, announced his departure last week. He previously served as SVP of global operations, and he will continue serving as director of Uber's board.
Chris Saad, a product manager for Uber’s developer platform, told his team he was leaving the company Tuesday, Recodereported. He was one of the many voices among Uber's 17,000 employee workforce who supported Kalanick.
"Travis embodied (and in some cases taught) me these things. There wasn't a moment or a minuscule detail that he noticed that he didn't immediately spring into action to help me solve - with that wry smile and enthusiastic glint in his eye," Saad wrote in a public Facebook post. "The cost of losing him as Uber's CEO will be incalculable."
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