Travis Kalanick now a billionaire

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, becomes a billionaire after £6.7bn ($9.3bn) investment deal from a consortium led by Japan’s Softbank. buying a chunk of the company from existing shareholders.

Mr. Kalanick, who stepped down as CEO in June 2017, after he was driven out of the top job by a series of scandals, is selling $ 1.4bn worth of stocks.

Travis Kalanick presided over a rampant cluture of sexism, the cover up of major hack, spying on journalists and allegedly the theft of trade secrets from Google.

He still has another $3bn worth of stake in the company. The final deal will see Mr Kalanick’s powers reduced with the selling of 29% of his shares and Softbank, the Tokyo-based group will gain 17.5% stake in Uber and which also seems to be taking a stake in every bright idea in Silicon Valley, will gain two seats on Uber’s board.

Of the $9.3bn, $1.3bn is a cash investment in new shares, with the rest going to existing Uber investors.

Soft Bank Director  54-year-old Rajeev Misra, a former debt-trading executive at Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG,said “Uber has a very bright future under its new leadership”, as part of the deal, Uber’s board has expanded from 11 to 17 directors, with Softbank group taking two of the new seats.