Friday, August 30, 2019

"Uber CEO says it 'sure looked like' Levandowski took Google's files" (UBER)

Keeping in mind Mr. Khosrowshahi had nothing to do with the former Waymo engineer, that was Kalanick's baby.*
From Bloomberg:
Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Thursday that "it sure looked like" former executive Anthony Levandowski took information on self-driving cars from his former employer, Google.

Prosecutors charged Levandowski this week with 33 counts of stealing trade secrets from Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous-vehicle unit Waymo. The charges revive a painful period for Uber when co-founder Travis Kalanick still ran the company. Levandowski was fired by Uber and Kalanick later resigned and was replaced by Khosrowshahi two years ago.

Uber ultimately settled a Waymo trade-secret lawsuit by paying about $245 million in equity. This year, when the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company filed to go public, Uber disclosed that it may have to pay about $127 million more to cover Levandowski’s obligations to the Alphabet unit.
"I wasn’t here when we brought Anthony on board but what I do know is that we went to incredible depths to make sure that any information that Anthony might have acquired from Google -- and it sure looked like he did -- didn’t make it over to our company," Khosrowshahi said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang. "That was our responsibility and I think we were incredibly diligent in making sure that we were not guilty of anything that could be nefarious one way or another."

Now the U.S. Attorney’s office is re-opening that saga by bringing charges against Levandowski. Prospectors have said their investigation is ongoing. Levandowski pleaded not guilty and his lawyer said he didn’t steal anything.

Today, Kalanick, who personally recruited Levandowski to Uber, sits on the board.
"He’s on the board for now and he’s going to be on the board tomorrow," Khosrowshahi said. "Ultimately now we’re a public company and the shareholders are going to get to pick their own board and that governance process will take care of itself going forward." Khosrowshahi called Kalanick "bright" and the CEO said he consults with the co-founder from time to time....MORE
*See:
Levandowski Arrested, Charged With Selling Waymo Autonomous Vehicle Trade Secrets to Uber (GOOG; UBER)
Which includes a link to 2017's:
The Third Rate Bromance of Travis Kalanick and Anthony Levandowski (plus Elon Musk does a drive-by)
And a few dozen more, use the search blog box if interested, keyword: Levandowski.
(or go for the five years of UBERliciousnes)