Uber founder Travis Kalanick has resigned as CEO under
pressure from the ride-hailing app's board. Kalanick's decision came at the
behest of five of Uber's major investors, including venture capital firm
Benchmark, one of its largest shareholders, according to The New York Times.
The company has spent much of this year under a cloud of bad
publicity, including employee claims of workplace harassment and a viral video
of Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver. The company has pledged to clean up
its corporate culture. As part of that effort, it hired Harvard Business School
professor Frances Frei as SVP of leadership and strategy this month.
"I love Uber more than anything in the world, but at this difficult moment in my personal life, I have accepted a group of investors' request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight," Kalanick said in a statement provided by Uber. "I will continue to serve on the board and will be available in any and all ways to help Uber become everything we've dreamed it would be."
Kalanick already had turned over the reins when he took a
leave of absence this month, following the death of his mother in a boating
accident.
First-quarter
data from expense management supplier Certify showed Uber's growth among
business travelers had slowed and that it had lost market share to competitor
Lyft. Even so, Uber continued to account for the majority of all ground
transportation bookings processed by Certify.
Tipping Drivers
Uber
will enable tipping through its app for all U.S. cities by the end of July. On
Tuesday, it enabled tipping in Houston, Minneapolis and Seattle as test markets
for the wider rollout. Lyft already allows tipping through its app.