The co founder of Uber Technologies Inc., Travis Kalanick is planning to sell 29% of his stock in Uber for about $ 1.4 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, Kalanick’s sale is part of a deal with a group of investors led by SoftBank Group Corp.
As a part of the latest investment round, SoftBank and a consortium of investors have agreed to buy stock from existing investors and employees, valuing the company at $ 48 billion. Last week, SoftBank and other investors secured agreements from shareholders who were willing to sell their stock in Uber. Post this transaction, SoftBank will take a 17% stake in the ride hailing services company.
Kalanick, who currently owns 10% of the company, will be letting go of one-third of his shares and had offered to sell as much as half of his stake in the firm. Sources further added, a limit was placed on the maximum amount of stock board members were allowed to tender as a part of the agreement. Many investors did not get to unload as many shares as they had hoped because of the widespread interest to sell.
While Uber’s valuation, for this funding round by SoftBank, has been reduced by 30% from its most recent valuation of $ 68 billion, the investor consortium will be investing $1.25 billion at the older, higher valuation.
The taxi hailing startup first confirmed the billion dollar deal with SoftBank and other investors in November last year. According to the agreement, Dragoneer Investment Group would lead the consortium to invest $ 1 billion to $ 1.25 billion in Uber while SoftBank would buy up to 17% of the existing shares from investors and employees in a secondary transaction.
As a part of the investment deal, Uber had to agree to a set of sweeping changes in the company including changes in its governance and reducing the influence of Travis Kalanick. The former CEO was ousted from the company last year after the company became mired in legal woes and a raft of government investigations. However, post selling his stake in the company, Kalanick would become an actual billionaire for the first time.