Travis Kalanick.
Photo: Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media via Wikimedia Commons.
Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber Technologies Inc., pushed back late Thursday against an investor's attempt to force him off the ride-hailing company's board, saying that a dispute over his control of three board seats must be settled in arbitration.
Kalanick's move, outlined in a 15-page court filing, seeks to strip Delaware's Court of Chancery of its jurisdiction over Benchmark Capital Partners' fraud suit and move what Kalanick called a public and personal attack into a confidential setting.
The venture capital firm has accused Kalanick of hiding a series of scandals in order to expand Uber's eight-member board to 11, in an effort to entrench himself after resigning as CEO in June. Kalanick appointed himself to one of the three seats and has the ability to fill the other two.
Last week, Benchmark, which holds one seat on Uber's board, moved to expedite the case and asked Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III to issue a status quo order that would drastically scale back Kalanick's voting rights and prevent him from filling the two board seats while Uber searches for a new CEO.
Kalanick plans to move for dismissal, arguing in his response to Benchmark's lawsuit that the company's voting agreement contains a broad arbitration provision, which includes Benchmark's claims and leaves to an arbitrator, and not the court, the question of whether the dispute is suitable for arbitration.
Benchmark's claims are subject to mandatory arbitration, and consequently this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to resolve them, Kalanick's attorneys from Williams & Connolly and Potter Anderson & Corroon said in the filing. Because Kalanick's motion to dismiss goes to the jurisdiction of the court, it must be resolved before the court enters any scheduling order governing litigation of Benchmark's claims, permits discovery or grants and relief against Kalanick.
A spokesman for Kalanick said that he had no comment beyond the filing, and an Uber spokeswoman did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
Benchmark could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Kalanick said that Benchmark and other investors approached him with a resignation letter at a Chicago hotel on June 20, weeks after Kalanick took a leave of absence following the death of his mother. According to Kalanick, Benchmark threatening a public smear campaign if he refused to sign, but at the time did not challenge his right to fill the two board seats.