Travis Kalanick and the Last Gasp of Tech's Alpha CEO

When Hollywood inevitably makes a biopic about Travis Kalanick, the embattled CEO of Uber--the most valuable private company in the world--screenwriters will have a hard time toning down reality to make it sound halfway believable. In the past few months alone, details have emerged about stolen trade secrets from Google regarding self-driving cars, sneaky tracking techniques for evading authorities, and, most alarmingly, allegations of ignored sexual harassment complaints and the most noxious office environment west of Wall Street. There were even reports that a top executive obtained the medical report of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver--and that CEO Travis Kalanick viewed the document. It all culminated in the company tapping former US attorney general Eric Holder to conduct an independent investigation into Uber's policies and culture. On Tuesday morning, during a highly anticipated all-hands meeting at Uber's headquarters in San Francisco, the board of directors shared the results of Holder's investigation: a 13-page document filled with recommendations for how to fix Uber's culture, including ceding some of Kalanick's power to a chief operating officer, who has yet to be hired, one of more than a dozen executive roles that are now empty.