Controversial Uber boss set to ride away with £1 billion in share deal

A founder of controversial company Uber will become a billionaire after investors agreed to take a huge stake in the cab firm.

Travis Kalanick, a co-founder, will net around £1 billion after investors led by a Japanese bank agreed to take a large stake in Uber.

Softbank are buying shares worth around £6.7bn – equal to almost an 18% chunk in Uber.

Mr Kalanick was formerly chief executive of Uber but was driven out of his job by a series of scandals that have hit the company in recent times.

Despite this, he remains a director at the company.

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Uber has called the deal a ‘great outcome for our shareholders, employees and customers’.

The deal comes at a time when Uber has been making headlines for a lot of wrong reasons.

In the past year it has faced a sexual harassment scandal, a lawsuit over allegedly stolen technology and London has withdrawn the company’s licence to operate in the British capital, deeming not ‘fit and proper’ to operate.

Uber is contesting that decision in the courts.

London is one of the company’s most lucrative markets.

The company also continues to experience steep losses.

It has also been bad personally for Kalanick who was filmed verbally abusing a driver in a video that went viral.

Recent media reports claimed Kalanick ‘squirmed on the floor’ when he begged fellow executives for forgiveness following the fallout from the incident.