At an all-hands meeting at Uber HQ in San Francisco this morning, former CEO Travis Kalanick was reportedly crying as new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (pronounced cause-row-SHA-hee) was introduced to the company. Uber's board voted to offer Khosrowshahi the job on Sunday, and board member Arianna Huffington announced that he had accepted the job in a memo to employees on Tuesday, as Yahoo Finance reports. Huffington also said that the board vote on his hiring had been unanimous, meaning that Kalanick did not put up the fight that had been expected.
Yahoo reporter JP Mangalindan, who obtained some leaked audio of an Uber all-hands meeting in July when Kalanick resigned, still apparently has a leaking source inside the company from whom he was getting the blow-by-blow of this morning's meeting.
Observe:
BREAKING: Uber's all-hands meeting kicking off announcing new CEO. Travis Kalanick is there and crying.
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
All Uber employees are now giving Kalanick a standing ovation in this company all-hands.
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
At Uber all-hands, Kalanick is now talking about how the past 6 months have been the hardest of his life and he's made many mistakes.
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
Kalanick is now talking about new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's background and accomplishments. He introduces Khosrowshahi to the stage.
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
At Uber all-hands, Khosrowshahi is commenting about how there's a lot of criticism around Uber's board but he admires them greatly.
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
Khosrowshahi is saying that throughout the vetting process, Kalanick would only talk to him via Facebook audio.
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
And, apparently commenting about how quickly the story of his hiring broke on Recode...
At Uber all-hands, Khosrowshahi also cracks a joke that @karaswisher must have his phone tapped!
— JP Mangalindan (@JPManga) August 30, 2017
Recode reported Monday night that Khosrowshahi had issued a memo to employees at Expedia, where he has been CEO for over 12 years, saying that this had been "one of the toughest decisions of my life." And, he wrote, "I have to tell you I am scared. I’ve been here at Expedia for so long that I’ve forgotten what life is like outside this place."
Today's changing of the guard is a major "reset" for Uber, and as Recode puts it, "While some of the staff were the ones responsible for all the messes ranging from regulatory missteps to dysfunctional management to toxic workplace behaviors to legal minefields a great swath of Uber’s 16,000 staffers are blameless, and just trying to do their jobs."
Kalanick issued a statement saying, "Casting a vote for the new chief executive was a big moment for me, and I couldn’t be happier to pass the torch to such an inspiring leader.”
Previously: Uber Board Names New CEO, Expedia Chief Dara Khosrowshahi
