Uber’s former CEO has been selling off large amounts of his shares, with a total figure nearing $1.5 billion.
Co-founder and former Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick, has been in the news recently as he has been offloading his shares in the ride-hailing company, at an alarming rate. Earlier this week, Kalanick disposed approximately $578 million of his Uber shares over a few days notably after a binding lockup period expired on Wednesday, Nov. 6. It would seem like Kalanick might be well on his way to dispose of a lot more of his holdings.
According to a Bloomberg report, the ex-CEO’s total offloaded shares is now nearing $1.5 billion and seems to still be moving fast. While Kalanick has not said anything regarding Uber or his reasons for selling, it’s worth noting that market movements like this are somewhat out of the ordinary. The CEO of Smart Insider – a share transaction analysis and tracking firm – Michael Tindale has also corroborated this. Tindale said:
“While it is usual to see directors with such a high value holding selling regularly, Kalanick’s sales are unusually high.”
Regardless, even with all of the sales, Kalanick still holds more than 65 million Uber shares and has a total worth of $3.3 billion at 43 years old. He is however not the only exec selling off as reports have it that co-founder Garrett Camp for some reason, has also disposed of shares worth about $20 million.
There’s also the point that selling off shares like this might not be a bad thing after all. This is because executives like Kalanick usually do not diversify their portfolios much, and end up being a little too vested in their own company’s stock. Kalanick may have simply decided to diversify.
While the sale might be unusual, there could be some explanation to satisfy the inquisitive market. Last year, Kalanick kicked off 10100, a fund directed at handling all of his other endeavors including investments, passions, and other general ideas. Kalanick who still retains a position as a director with Uber suggested at the time that 10100 will oversee different things ranging from real estate investments all the way to philanthropy. It might be safe to assume that 10100 is being funded with some of the proceeds from the sales.
Kalanick has also launched a new startup called CloudKitchens, which seeks to replace actual restaurants. The idea behind CloudKitchens is to have restaurants with very few staff who would prepare foods strictly to be delivered in partnership with other food delivery companies such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, and others. This method will see the company buying cheap property in several urban locations, making food delivery a lot easier and faster in these places.
Basically, CloudKitchens will retain ownership of these properties and will rent them out to restaurant owners who have food delivery businesses and don’t require a physical eat-in location. Kalanick has reportedly pumped $300 million of his own money into the company, with another $400 million added from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Today, CloudKitchens is valued at $5 billion.
At the moment of writing, Uber stock’s price is $29.46 which is much lower than it highest price of $47 in May.
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