Uber founder Travis Kalanick has resigned as CEO of the ride-sharing company.
"I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this hard moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight", Kalanick said in a statement sent to the Times.
A spokesman for Uber said: "Travis has always put Uber first".
Kalanick's decision "was a surprise to everyone", a second Uber spokesman said. Five of the company's major investors drafted a letter to Kalanick, explaining that it was time to find new leadership for Uber. A spokeswoman for Arianna Huffington said she, too, is not interested in becoming CEO but will remain on the Uber board. The probe resulted in over 20 people fired, while 31 received counseling or training.
Just last week, Kalanick had announced that he would be taking a leave of absence as the company implemented changes to improve its workplace culture, which was set in motion after a series of sexual harassment allegations.
Lots of companies use independent contractors, but Uber has made an art form of minimizing its obligations to its drivers.
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The 40-year-old's pugnacious style largely defined Uber's approach and helped it become a transportation colossus valued at $68 billion, the largest private firm backed by venture capitalists in the world.
While Kalanick launched Uber into one of the world's most ubiquitous companies, his tenure has been marked by a number of controversies. On Friday, before his abrupt resignation, NPR asked an early Uber investor Jason Calacanis what he thought of the CEO.
In a Medium post, Canadian Uber co-founder Garrett Camp the path that got Uber to where it is today, and the way to move forward. The list includes CEO, chief operating officer, general counsel, senior vice president of engineering, chief marketing officer and board chair.
Kalanick's penchant for conflict undermined the company's prospects, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
A top Uber executive, Amit Singhal, also left the company after he failed to disclose that the reason he left Google was because of sexual harassment allegations.
Both drivers and riders got wise to a price-gouging scheme, then Uber screwed it up even worse by admitting they charged richer people more money.
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