$2.5 Billion Dump: Travis Kalanick Has Sold 92% of His Uber Shares
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has unloaded more than 90% of his shares in the ride-hailing company. | Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP / AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / JUSTIN SULLIVAN
- Travis Kalanick has not wasted a single day to dump his Uber shares.
- Kalanick’s remaining stake is nearly 10% of what Uber co-founder Garrett Camp currently holds.
- The selling wave after the lockup period expiry has spared some insiders though.
It took ten years after being founded for Uber (NYSE:UBER) to get publicly listed. But it has taken co-founder Travis Kalanick less than two months to dispose of over 90% of his stake in the ride-hailing giant.
According to SEC filings , the former Uber CEO has been selling his shares on every single day the stock market has been open with the exception of weekends and bank holidays.
While it’s early to tell whether Kalanick intends to completely divest from the firm he co-founded with Garrett Camp, at the current rate he could easily dispose of what is remaining before the end of the year.
How Bad is the Share Dump?
Beginning immediately after the lockup period expired on Nov. 6, Kalanick disposed of the entire 22,630,301 shares he owned indirectly. As of Dec. 18, Kalanick also disposed of 67,163,379 shares he held directly. That’s an average selling rate of nearly three million shares per day.
The total amount of shares sold so far represents 91.6% of the stake he held before the lockup period expiry.
With the price of Uber’s stock ranging between $26.60 and $30.42 since Nov. 6, Kalanick has raked in a gross amount of over $2.5 billion, or $80 million daily.
Has Travis Kalanick Given Up on Uber?
If Kalanick ends up selling his entire Uber stake, his move would have an uncanny resemblance to what Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did in the 1980s.
After he was ousted as Apple CEO in 1985, the late Jobs sold his entire stake in the iPhone maker. He retained one share that would allow him to attend annual meetings though.
Kalanick was ousted as Uber CEO in 2017. He still sits on the company’s board.
Is Everybody at Uber Selling?
The other Uber co-founder Garrett Camp has also sold shares, but not as much as Kalanick. As of Dec. 12, Camp retained a stake of 71,842,774 shares. Besides selling a small portion, Camp also gifted 7,570,262 shares to charity earlier this month, per an SEC filing .
But while the Uber co-founders have divested, the current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and the chairman of the board, Ronald Sugar have done the opposite. Mid last month, Khosrowshahi purchased 250,000 Uber shares after the expiry of the lockup period. This brought the total stake he holds directly to 1,530,939 shares.
Having bought at $26.75, the stake acquired last month has now appreciated by nearly $1 million to $7,532,500 as of Wednesday’s close .
Sugar, on the other hand, bought 35,000 shares of the ride-hailing firm two days after the lockup period expired.
