2017-06-22nakedcapitalism.com

Not surprisingly, the financial press has been all agog about the drama of Travis Kalanick's forced departure from Uber's CEO position yesterday, fixated on salacious insider details.

That means journalists largely have ignored what ought to be the real story, which is whether Uber has any future. I anticipate that Hubert Horan will offer a longer-form treatment of this topic. Hubert had already documented, in considerable detail in his ten-part series, how Uber has no conceivable path to profitability.

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Uber's managerial upheaval of the last few months mean its decay path is sure to accelerate. I've been following the business press for over 30 years. I can't think of a single case where even an established, profitable business with an solid franchise has had so many top level positions vacant, and for such bad reasons. As reader vidimi quipped, "With no CEO, CFO, COO, and CIO, uber is coming very close to becoming a self-driving company." And that's not even a full list.

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And in a scandal that will have a much longer tail, Uber's former head of its Waymo driverless car unit, Anthony Levandowski, has had his case involving alleged theft of intellectual property from Google referred to the Department of Justice. Kalanick was deeply involved in Levandowski's sudden exodus from Google. It seems implausible that Kalanick didn't know Levandowski was making off with boatloads of files. If the case does lead to a criminal prosecution, it is hard to see how Kalanick could escape scrutiny as a potential criminal co-conspirator.

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Some of the top executive departures, such as of its recently hired COO, brought it to help the company grow up, its CFO and its head of communications, were voluntary. That's not what you see in Silicon Valley stars on a winning path. Confirming that picture are rumors of insiders being cashed out at valuations well below that of recent fundraisings.

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And particularly worrisome is the resignation of Uber's chief financial officer, Gautam Gupta, at the end of May, when Uber announced $708 million in quarterly losses... A CFO departure is often a red flag, particularly when it is abrupt and mysterious.

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The wee problem is it will prove impossible to effect anything resembling a turnaround at Uber. As Hubert Horan pointed out, the very culture that made Uber a success is now its biggest liability. And as a result, investors don't appear to have a plan for how to straighten out Uber.



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