Uber's CEO Kalanick wasn't fired for bad behaviour
Company lost a lot of money under him - US$2.8 billion on US$6.5 billion of revenue in 2016
London
AFTER a string of scandals and embarrassments, Uber's embattled CEO Travis Kalanick was forced to resign. The assumption is that he was pushed out for bad behaviour. The truth is more prosaic: the other problems compounded the basic one that he lost a lot of money. Uber lost US$2.8 billion on US$6.5 billion of revenue in 2016.
Many years ago, Fred Wilson, one of the top venture capitalists (VCs) in the world, famous for his role in companies such as Twitter and Zynga, put it succinctly: "VCs have control when things don't work. Entrepreneurs have control when they do." That's common sense in most of the business world. But as the Uber debacle shows, legal provisions such as board seats or shareholder voting rights matter much less than actual performance in Silicon Valley too.
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