Benchmark Explains Reason For Suing Travis Kalanick To Uber Employees, Undermining CEO Search

One of Uber’s biggest investors, Benchmark just filed a lawsuit against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. In an effort to clear up a few misunderstandings, the venture capital firm sent a letter to employees explaining why it decided to do this. According to Benchmark, Kalanick was actively undermining the search for a new CEO.

In the open letter addressed to everyone working at the cab-hailing firm, Kalanick’s existence on the board of member is harming its ability to search for a new CEO. In fact, Benchmark is hinting that the ex-Uber boss or his allies have been manipulating the search in order to maintain the power vacuum.

The firm also addressed questions as to why it did not sue Kalanick as soon as he failed to live up to a few amendments regarding Uber’s voting agreement. Apparently, it was to give him a chance to actually keep to his end of the bargain.

Finally, the firm decided to confront Kalanick about his behavior, telling him that litigation would be involved if the tech pariah did not stop interfering with Uber’s operations. Instead of complying, Kalanick apparently ignored these concerns and caused quite a bit of uncertainty for all those involved. This is why Benchmark decided to take legal action.

As for Kalanick, he recently released a statement, expressing confusion regarding the lawsuit by Benchmark.

“Like many shareholders, I am disappointed and baffled by Benchmark's hostile actions, which clearly are not in the best interests of Uber and its employees on whose behalf they claim to be acting. Since 2009, building Uber into a great company has been my passion and obsession. I continue to work tirelessly with the board to identify and hire the best CEO to guide Uber into its next phase of growth and ensure its continued success," Kalanick said.