The Uber board selected Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to take the place of Travis Kalanick as Uber's CEO.
After dalliances with big names like Immelt and Whitson, Uber selected a surprise candidate — Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi — to replace ousted CEO Travis Kalanick.
The ride hailing company appeared to be reviewing better-known candidates, such as GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt and HP CEO Meg Whitman, according to media reports, before snagging the lesser-known Khosrowshahi.
The company hasn’t confirmed the hiring because it wants to inform Uber employees first, multiple reports have said.
Khosrowshahi, 48, is an Iranian-American, who moved to the U.S. with his family in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1978. He’s been at the help of Expedia for more than a decade and overseen some of the travel site’s largest acquisitions, including HomeAway for $3.9 billion, Travelocity for $280 million and Orbitz for $1.6 billion in the past two years.
(Former GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt was considered the top candidate for Uber. Click Here for the story.)
The Brown graduate has overseen more than 20 acquisitions or partnerships since joining Expedia as CEO in 2005, including many that have consolidated the on-line travel industry such as Hotels.com, Trivago, Orbitz, Travelocity and HomeAway.
Former GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt was considered the top contender to replace Uber's Travis Kalanick.
“Uber’s future expectations are almost as high as its market cap. While still a market leader, Uber left an opening that challengers, including Lyft, were happy to fill,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher and executive analyst for Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, in a statement.
Khosrowshahi faces a multitude of challenges going forward — increased competition, integration of autonomous vehicles and international growth — but the removing the tarnish from Uber’s reputation is likely to be job one.
“The brand can still recover, but Mr. Khosrowshahi will have to move quickly to regain Uber’s lost momentum,” Brauer noted. “Beyond the current ride sharing battle, there remains the larger question of autonomous tech and who will get there first. If one or more companies beats Uber to that finish line it could seriously undermine the brand’s core business model.”
(Kalanick forced out as CEO at Uber. For the story, Click Here.)
Uber’s 14-member board has been searching for a replacement for the aforementioned Kalanick for much of the summer. He took a leave of absence to tend to family matters and contemplate his next move before the board forced him to resign.
Kalanick was at the center of much of the controversy surrounding the company he founded. The company own investigators found the company had ignored a long-standing problem with sexual harassment. Uber also skirted regulations had continuously skirted local regulations as well as improper behavior by the company’s drivers.
In addition, Waymo, the Google subsidiary that is working on putting autonomous vehicles on the road, sued Uber for stealing trade secrets by hiring a former employee, who had downloaded thousands of pages of information about Waymo.
Kalanick also got into a shouting match with an Uber driver over compensation issues. He ultimately apologized and said he would search for ways to become an improved leader. He ultimately never got the chance.
(To find out more about the issues leading Uber CEO Kalanick’s departure, Click Here.)
Immelt and Whitman had become the recent favorites to take the mantle. However, Whitman withdrew her name from consideration with a LinkedIn post and Immelt followed suit early Sunday using twitter. Reports indicated that Uber’s board was going to meet later in the day to vote on a third, unknown, candidate.