Mr. Kalanick’s resignation came under pressure after hours of arguments involving Uber’s investors, according to two people with an awareness of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details were confidential.
Earlier on Tuesday, five of Uber’s major investors demanded that the chief executive resigns immediately. The investors included one of Uber’s largest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which holds one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber’s board. The investors made their order for Mr. Kalanick to step down in a letter delivered to the chief executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with the awareness of the situation.
In the message, titled “Moving Uber Forward” and obtained by The New York Times, the investors wrote to Mr. Kalanick that he must promptly leave and that the company needed a transition in leadership. Mr. Kalanick consulted with at least one Uber board member, and after lengthy discussions with some of the investors, he agreed to resign. He will remain on Uber’s board of directors.
“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this dark moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors demand to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted by another fight,” Mr. Kalanick said in a statement.
Uber’s board said in a declaration that Mr. Kalanick had “always put Uber first” and that his moving down as chief executive would give the company “room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber’s history.” An Uber spokesman declined to comment further.
The movement caps months of questions over the leadership of Uber, which has become a top example of Silicon Valley start-up culture gone astray. The company has been exposed this year as having a workplace culture that involved sexual harassment and discrimination, and it has pushed the case in dealing with law enforcement and even partners. That tone was set by Mr. Kalanick, who has aggressively transformed the company into the world’s dominant ride-hailing service and upended the transport industry around the globe.
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