Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick To Become A Billionaire With Stock Selloff

Travis Kalanick is the embattled former CEO of ride-hailing service Uber. He stepped down from his post as CEO of the company last summer after investors sent him a letter demanding his immediate resignation (although he remained on the board of the company). Kalanick said at the time, "I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight."

Bloomberg reports that Kalanick has long been one of the wealthiest people in the world, at least on paper. The former executive is now set to become a real billionaire for the first time with a massive stock sell-off that will see him shed 29% of the stake he owns in the company he co-founded. The deal is said to be worth about $1.4 billion and the shares will go to SoftBank Group Corp. and a consortium of other investors.

Kalanick owns 10% of the company and the deal values Uber at $48 billion. Kalanick intended to sell off about half of his stake in the company, which is the most board members are allowed to tender. The percentage of his shares offered up for sale had to be cut back to meet terms of an agreement between Uber and the buyers according to people familiar with the deal.

The terms of that deal prevent sellers from parting with more than 58% of the shares initially offered. The deal with Softbank is expected to close later this month, and when that deal is finalized, it will also come with several governance reforms that reduce the influence Kalanick has at Uber. With accusations of serious bribery and hacking of competitors and overall espionage, Kalanick has chosen a good time to sell off shares.