According to people familiar with the situation, Sunday's move by Travis Kalanick, the former chief executive of Uber Ubud, and major investor Benchmark to agree on board seat controls, including a moratorium on the former chief executive, paved the way for the deal. A few days ago, the two sides seemed deadlocked.
As soon as the deal with Softbank is completed, the board of Uber will add six new seats and will bring changes to the voting rights that in fact limit Kalanick's influence on the board. In addition, the deal will be a year of turmoil Uber Stoms Up for Urgent Stabilization: The San Francisco-based company is still coping with the adverse effects of allegations of sexual harassment by former software engineers and other scandals that have led a group of investors to pull Kalanick out of office in June.
Softbank expects to obtain at least 14% of Uber's share by directly investing about $ 1 billion, but mainly by acquiring shares from existing investors at a valuation lower than UOB's current $ 68 billion valuation The members of the Softbank lead consortium include Dragoneer Investment Group and private equity firm General Atlantic.
Details of the takeover offer have not yet been announced and may not be able to attract enough investors to sell the shares, according to people close to the matter, who said the Japanese investor may cancel the deal if Softbank did not get at least 14% of Uber shares.
The sources said Benchmark agreed to suspend the lawsuit against Kalanick for the time being and Kalanick agreed to forward the candidates for the three directorships in his possession to the board for voting in the future.
Benchmark had previously filed a lawsuit against Kalanick asking him to return control of the board of directors it holds to the board of directors, which has taken a different attitude as Benchmark holds more than $ 8 billion in shares of Uber and has a board seat. As Saudi sovereignty last year, As part of the $ 3.5 billion Fortune Fund investment in Uber, Kalanick gained control of three board seats.
The source said that once the transaction is completed, Benchmark will abandon the lawsuit.
For Softbank, Softbank will own shares in some of the world's largest network-service companies once Uber's $ 10 billion deal is reached, with SoftBank both in Ola, ANI Technologies Pvt, and in the board of directors of GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Have a board of directors, the two companies are Uber direct competitors in India, Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Still, Softbank's goal of seizing Uber's controlling stake still faces obstacles, and sources said Benchmark privately hesitated about whether to sell the shares at the tender offer valuation, and Kalanick also said he would retain about 10% of the entire shareholding. About 13% of Uber shares.
According to sources, Benchmark believes that Uber may be valued at $ 100 billion, while the discussions surrounding the tender offer focus on the valuation of about 50 billion U.S. dollars.