Breaking: Uber has offered CEO role to Dara Khosrowshahi from Expedia

An Uber spokesperson tells us its board has reached a decision to offer someone the CEO role.

“The Board has voted and will announce the decision to employees first.”

We’ve confirmed from a source familiar with the situation that this person is Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia. Kara Swisher of Recode was first with the news.

Both Meg Whitman and Jeff Immelt had been considered for the top job, but both publicly tweeted that they didn’t want it. Some reports on Sunday suggested that Whitman was still in the running anyway.

The Uber CEO seat has been vacant since June, when co-founder Travis Kalanick resigned. His departure came after former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder completed an investigation into the company’s culture. Lawsuits and allegations of sexism are what prompted the investigation.

Since then, the Uber board has been involved with its own lawsuits. Early investor Benchmark Capital, which has one of the board seats, sued Kalanick claiming that he did not disclose material information about the company’s problems. They now want Kalanick off the board and say they would not have granted him the power to appoint two additional board seats, which have not been filled. Early investor and former board member, Shervin Pishevar, has intervened in the lawsuit, accusing Benchmark of leaking confidential information.

Khosrowshahi has headed up Expedia since 2005, after serving as the chief financial officer of IAC for seven years. Expedia has done very well in the stock market under his term and is up 32% so far this year. The stock has nearly tripled in the past five years.

Several Uber investors have told us that they are happy with the decision, saying that Khosrowshai has the right operational experience to get the job done.

According to a recent Glassdoor survey based on employee feedback, Khosrowshahi was ranked 39th among the highest-rated CEOs, with more than 2,200 employee reviews combining to assign him a 94 percent approval rating.

 

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