--- title: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Just Reached a Billion-Dollar Milestone description: Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sold 29% of his shares in the company he founded, making him officially a billionaire. authors: - name: Rob Wile url: https://money.com/author/rob-wile/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 191 covers: - Business - Career Advice - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/rjwile former_staff: true published: '2018-01-05T16:10:03.000Z' modified: '2018-01-05T16:10:03.000Z' section: Business tags: - Billionaire - Travis Kalanick - Uber word_count: 365 canonical: https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![180105-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick](https://img.money.com/2018/01/180105-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick.jpg) *Uber founder Travis Kalanick* He's no longer the face of Uber. But Travis Kalanick, the founder of the popular rideshare company who was [ousted](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-22/kalanick-s-ouster-as-uber-ceo-began-with-a-hand-delivered-letter) as CEO last summer, has officially become a billionaire after selling 29% of the shares he owns in the company, [*Bloomberg* reports.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-05/uber-co-founder-kalanick-is-said-to-plan-sale-of-29-of-stake) This week, an investor consortium led by Japan's SoftBank [purchased](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-28/uber-investors-are-said-to-agree-to-sell-stake-in-softbank-deal) a stake in Uber that valued the company at $48 billion. *Recode* [calculates](https://www.recode.net/2018/1/4/16852572/travis-kalanick-billionaire-softbank-deal) that each share was worth $33, meaning Kalanick stands to net $1.4 billion in his sale. This is the first time Kalanick has sold Uber shares. He had once [bragged](http://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanick-selling-14-billion-in-uber-shares-2018-1) that he would never do so, and reiterated that he wouldn't sell as recently as this summer, *Bloomberg* reported. But for reasons not known he changed his mind in recent weeks, *Recode* said. Uber investors forced Kalanick, 41, to resign last year after they decided he had become a liability for the company. Under his watch, Uber became the subject of a trade secrets lawsuit by Google's parent company, as well as a [federal investigation](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-10/uber-greyball-investigation-expands-to-multiple-u-s-cities "Uber Greyball Investigation Expands to Multiple U.S. Cities") into the use of software that allegedly targeted specific Uber riders for tracking, [*Bloomberg* reported](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-22/kalanick-s-ouster-as-uber-ceo-began-with-a-hand-delivered-letter). The company also hired former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder to conduct an internal investigation of Kalanick's actions that turned up further questions about his leadership, *Bloomberg* said. *USA Today* [reported](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/02/24/uber-travis-kalanick-/98328660/) last February that Kalanick presided over "a bellicose, almost frat-house environment where milestones were often celebrated with chest bumps and men held push-up contests nightly at their desks," citing several unnamed employees. Last February, a former employee named Susan Fowler published an [essay](https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber) detailing her time at the company and the sexism that allegedly prevailed there. "When I joined Uber, the organization I was part of was over 25% women," she wrote. "By the time I was trying to transfer to another eng\[ineering\] organization, this number had dropped down to less than 6%. Women were transferring out of the organization, and those who couldn't transfer were quitting or preparing to quit. There were two major reasons for this: there was the organizational chaos, and there was also the sexism within the organization." Kalanick remains a significant minority stakeholder in the company, having owned 10% prior to his sale. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Entrepreneurship", "item": "https://money.com/entrepreneurship/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Just Reached a Billion-Dollar Milestone" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/", "name": "Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Just Reached a Billion-Dollar Milestone", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-01-05T16:10:03.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2018-01-05T16:10:03.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Just Reached a Billion-Dollar Milestone", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/01/180105-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick.jpg", "width": 2564, "height": 1714, "caption": "180105-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rob Wile", "url": "https://money.com/author/rob-wile/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/rob-wile/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/rjwile" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-01-05T16:10:03.000Z", "description": "Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sold 29% of his shares in the company he founded, making him officially a billionaire.", "abstract": "Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sold 29% of his shares in the company he founded, making him officially a billionaire.", "@id": "https://money.com/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-just-reached-a-billion-dollar-milestone/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2018-01-05T16:10:03.000Z", "wordCount": 365, "keywords": [ "Billionaire", "Travis Kalanick", "Uber" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Entrepreneurship", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship" ] } ] } ] } ```