Sprint’s Marcelo Claure will join Uber’s board
Once on the CEO list, Sprint’s Marcelo Claure will take one of two SoftBank seats on Uber’s board — the other going to the Vision Fund’s Rajeev Misra, writes Recode, with several sources confirming.
The globe-trotting telecom CEO, whose name has been previously floated for the seat, will take one of two director slots that Japanese investment giant SoftBank is getting, as part of a successful tender offer by SoftBank that is set to be completed at the end of this month.
The other will go to Rajeev Misra, who is head of SoftBank’s Vision Fund that led the multi-billion dollar deal to buy a big stake in the car-hailing company.
Sprint is owned by SoftBank, and Claure and Misra are also on that board. Claure was also one of the candidates that some on the Uber board had put high up on its CEO list. The pair will join the 11 current Uber directors, who include Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and ousted CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick, as well as large investors and several independent ones.
And while a baker’s dozen might be a lot for what is still a non-public company, one of the results of the board’s longtime infighting is that it is still on the hunt for three more independent directors as well as an independent chairman.
Yes, 17 people — or nearly two baseball teams. If that sounds potentially unwieldy and possibly chaotic for Uber’s governance, you’d be right! (And while perhaps not so good for Uber, it’s an extra-leaky gift that keeps on giving for all the media covering the company because, well, 17 directors to wear down — um, ask for comment!)
Uber is looking at a range of board candidates, said sources, with the focus on the chairman slot, and Khosrowshahi will be a key part of that selection process. That’s why his former boss, IAC and Expedia chairman Barry Diller, is one name that has been most rumored for the job and still is, despite telling Recode last year that he did not want it.
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https://www.recode.net/2018/1/6/16858802/sprint-marcelo-claure-uber-board-17-directors
- Sprint’s Marcelo Claure will join Uber’s board