Uber's board of directors is meeting Sunday in Los Angeles to discuss the possible firings or forced resignations of some of its high-level executives in the wake of the results of a months-long investigation into sexual harassment claims at the company led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. As Reuters reports via a source "familiar with the situation," among the items on the agenda is a vote of confidence, of sorts, for CEO Travis Kalanick, with the result possibly being a leave of absence and/or a change in his role at the embattled company.
The seven-member voting body, which includes Kalanick himself, will be going over the report prepared by Holder's law firm Covington & Burling addressing what has been characterized as a "toxic" corporate culture at Uber, and one source familiar with the report's findings tells Recode, "It's ugly." The report was delivered first, early last week, to a subcommittee of the board consisting of Arianna Huffington, Bill Gurley, and David Bonderman, and now has been distributed to the entire board, including Kalanick. The source tells Recode it's "A story of a workplace gone wrong in a lot of key ways," and the board's Sunday meeting is likely to include some decisive actions in response to the report in order to begin righting the ship and moving on.
The report already resulted in the terminations of upwards of 20 employees last week.
The Wall Street Journal has it that top executive and close Kalanick confidant Emil Michael may be set to resign as soon as Monday. Michael came under fire three years ago when it became public that he had allegedly talked about having journalists who were critical of Uber investigated, and it may be that he is implicated in the Holder report as well.
Recode says that several top managers and execs could be getting the boot, including board member Ryan Graves, who oversaw HR, and CTO Thuan Pham, who was implicated specifically the February allegations of discriminatory behavior made by former Uber engineer Susan Fowler.
Reuters reports that the board will be discussing some "time off" for Kalanick, and that after a leave of absence he "might return in a role with less authority... either in a position other than CEO or as CEO with narrower responsibilities and subject to stronger oversight."
But with Graves on his side as well as Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, who's also on the board, Recode suggests that Kalanick still "has effective voting control of the board," so he may be able to negotiate his own fate.
Uber has so far declined to comment on these rumors, and we'll update you as we learn more.
Previously: Travis Kalanick Sent Uber Employees A Memo About Having Sex With Each Other, Twice