Wilmington - Uber Technologies’ co-founder Travis Kalanick fired back at
investor Benchmark, saying its lawsuit seeking to oust him from the
ride-hailing company’s board is based on “a fabrication” and accused the firm
of threats and intimidation.
Upping the ante on his fight with the venture capital firm,
which holds a 13% stake in Uber, Kalanick said that Benchmark waged a
secret campaign to remove him from the company. The firm executed its plan in
June, “at the most shameful” of times, according to documents made public on
Friday in Delaware Chancery Court, immediately after his mother died in late
May.
The relationship between Kalanick and Benchmark, an early
Uber backer, has deteriorated in recent months. Benchmark sued Kalanick on Aug.
10 alleging he duped the firm into allowing him to fill three board seats and
sought to pack the panel with allies willing to keep him as a director after he
resigned as chief executive officer in June. Kalanick, Benchmark claimed, hid
his “gross mismanagement” of the company and cited a series of Uber scandals as
evidence.
Uber’s founder was pressured to resign after a series of
controversies erupted, including a lawsuit with Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving
car business, a probe by the U.S. Justice Department over the use of technology
to deceive enforcement officials and claims its workplace is hostile to women.
Kalanick said in court papers that he resigned under duress
after Benchmark threatened to launch a public campaign against him.
Mother’s Funeral
Less than two weeks after his mother’s funeral in June,
Kalanick said Benchmark principals came to his hotel room in Chicago and handed
him a draft resignation letter, telling him “he had hours to sign it.” Kalanick
demanded removal of a provision in the letter that suggested the document was a
“contractual undertaking,” according the filing.
“Ultimately, given his emotional state, Kalanick relented
and signed the revised letter,” his lawyers said in court papers.
Kalanick described Benchmark’s claims of fraud as a
“fabrication articulated for the first time in its complaint.” The firm, he
said, was aware of all the events on which it based its fraud claim.
The former CEO previewed his defence against Benchmark’s
allegations in a filing requesting that the case be dismissed or stayed in favour
of arbitration. His lawyers had said previously that Benchmark’s claims are
subject to a mandatory arbitration provision contained in the voting agreement
that is the focus of its lawsuit.
Kalanick’s lawyers argued that when Benchmark originally
threatened to take legal action, they said it would come in “the form of an
arbitration demand,” according to court filings. “What changed in the interim
is a matter known only to Benchmark.”
Benchmark’s Profit
In court papers, Kalanick’s lawyers described him as a good
CEO whose efforts made money for investors. His attempts to grow Uber into a
company worth more than $70 billion “increased the value of Benchmark’s $12
million investment to more than $7 billion,” according to the filing.
Benchmark, based in Woodside,
California, is seeking a “status
quo” order that would temporarily bar Kalanick from filling open Uber board
seats.
“Benchmark is not seeking to preserve the status quo,”
Kalanick’s lawyers said. “To the contrary, Benchmark ignores the arbitration
provision and seeks drastic relief that would silence and sideline Kalanick essentially
the final relief it hopes to achieve.”