Uber Is Sorry About All the Bad Stuff
Also core providers, conflicts of interest, duration and seating charts.
Well, if you get rid of your founder and chief executive officer in a boardroom coup two years before your initial public offering, your IPO prospectus can’t really feature an inspirational letter from that founder explaining the deeper meaning of the company. I mean, you could ask, but the letter you get might be peevish and weird. And so Uber Technologies Inc., which publicly filed its long-awaited IPO prospectus yesterday, does not have a letter from founder and ex-CEO Travis Kalanick in that prospectus. Instead it has this:
It goes on for three more paragraphs but they’re just as boring. And, yes, fine, there’s also a letter from Uber’s current CEO, but it is also boring. Dr. Ronald Sugar! He’s 70 years old, was the CEO of Northrop Grumman Corporation from 2003 until 2010, and is also on the boards of Apple Inc., Chevron Corp., Amgen Inc. and Air Lease Corp. He joined Uber’s board last July. And he wrote you a letter. The purpose of his letter is to say: Hi, I’m here. There’s a board chairman. This is a mature serious company, with an independent board. There are grown-ups.