THE PARAGON

CHAPTER 8: ADIEUS, AMADEUS

By September 2017, Uber had cracked a deal with Softbank Group, a Japanese conglomerate led by Masayoshi Son, creator of $100 billion Vision Fund, and one of Japan's most influential technology investors.

The deal eventually promised what Uber was desperate for: Capital. Stability. Ordinance.

But, it came along in a startling condition. The deal included a proposal to acquire 6 new board seats, diluting Travis's influence to almost negligible. Defying the negotiation, he independently appointed Ursula Burns and John Thain to the board. As yet, this emerged as one of Travis's final dances in his dethroned empire.

Regardless, fate dismissed his strife. The combat drove him past his fiat, when the Softbank deal was finally aboard in 2018. Uber's valuation soared to $48 billion; a massive blow to Travis's fading conviction.

On the other hand, Khosrowshahi was eagerly revamping the stature of Uber, initiating foreign relationships to bolster the company's legacy.

Then came Waymo, the company that had sued Uber in 2017, accusing it of stealing trade secrets interlaced with autonomous car technology. The company who claimed Uber was a Silicon Valley con, was finally settled under Khosrowshahi's leadership, where he stated that the case "could have, and should have been handled differently."

With an agreement to pay $245 million in equity, and pledging to cease the usage of Waymo's technology, Khosrowshahi benchmarked this moment as one of the key turning points in Uber's philosophy. A radical change that brought a fragment of trust back from the consumers, and admirers of the company. The Old Uber ethos had shifted bit by bit, one arbitration at a time, since his arrival.

Still, there was a pile of never-ending challenges that spiraled around the company's preliminary agendas. A similar mishap came about, when a pedestrian was killed by Uber's self-driving test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. The grim tragedy sent shock waves to the autonomous vehicle industry.

Even after the resumption of the former successors at the company, the dilemma remained: What if the future wasn't ready at all?

The company that had an apathy on corporate duties and responsibilities, proved truly precarious for Khosrowshahi, during his early days at Uber. But something had to be done. Else, Travis would let go of any miscues for his retrieval, which Khosrowshahi was profoundly aware of.

The new maestro chose to play a risky card this time.

After years of turmoil, lawsuits, and leadership battles, Uber finally debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol, UBER. With each share valued at $45, the company sold 180 million shares, raising $8.1 billion; one of the largest tech offerings since f*******:.

Unfortunately, once the trading began, shares opened at $42, closing down more than 7 percent on the first day. However, this drop didn't change Uber's IPO collection; the company's market capitalization was at stake, reflecting the investor sentiment as pessimistic. Though the outcomes shattered the illusion of grit and valor, they were bittersweetly satisfactory.

Khosrowshahi had succeeded on his first ever daunting risk he vouched for. Resurfacing the fundamentals of Uber around accountability and corporate governance, he made sure that Uber could now survive regulators, investors, lawsuits and public market scrutiny.

By this time, everything was starting to get irrelevant to Travis. The company he had once envisioned, was now on a path he could no longer recognize. The vision he had carved was erased completely, detaching it into something dreaded and cold.

Travis could no longer uphold the discourtesy towards his dream, and his persuasion. Deciding to resign from Uber's Board too, he sold nearly 90% of his Uber shares worth more than 2.5 billion USD, signifying his departure from his long-held reverie.

Eventually, he sealed his years of steadfast conviction for Uber with an emotional closure;

“Uber has been a part of my life for the past 10 years. At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits. I’m proud of all that Uber has achieved, and I will continue to cheer for its future from the sidelines.”



Years of pride and prejudice had finally come to an end. And now, it was time for Travis to bid farewell to Uber, once and for all.