Uber’s Board Approves Changes to Reshape Company’s Power Balance<br />He said in a statement that the board “came together collaboratively” and that the company’s new governance framework “will serve Uber well.”<br />Specifically, Uber’s board agreed on Tuesday to remove the special voting power carried<br />by two categories of Uber stock, the Class B common shares and the preferred shares.<br />In a statement, Uber’s board said it had “voted unanimously to move forward with the proposed investment by SoftBank and with governance changes<br />that would strengthen its independence and ensure equality among all shareholders.”<br />The decisions mean that Uber, valued at nearly $70 billion<br />and closely watched by other start-ups, may have defused — at least temporarily — another fractious situation.<br />SAN FRANCISCO — Uber’s board of directors voted on Tuesday for governance changes<br />that will reshape the balance of power at the ride-hailing service, paving the way for a stock sale to the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and for the company to go public by 2019.<br />As a result, the clout of certain Uber shareholders — including, most significantly, its former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, who is a board member<br />— will be reduced, according to people briefed on the deliberations, who asked to remain anonymous because the conversations were confidential.<br />Several directors, including Ms. Burns and Mr. Khosrowshahi, the chief executive, who was in London trying to regain Uber’s right to operate in<br />that city, dialed in to the meeting, the people briefed on the conversations said.
