Uber Reaches Deal to Sell Stake to SoftBank<br />Under the agreement, a consortium of investors led by SoftBank will buy at least 14 percent of Uber through a combination of new<br />and existing stock, according to three people briefed on the process, who spoke on condition of anonymity because those details are confidential.<br />SoftBank plans to buy about $1 billion of fresh stock at Uber’s current valuation of about $68.5 billion,<br />but the bulk of the deal will be purchasing existing Uber shares from current investors.<br />As part of the deal, Uber’s board agreed to carry out a set of sweeping governance changes, including measures<br />that reduce the influence that Travis Kalanick, Uber’s former chief executive, has at the company.<br />SAN FRANCISCO — Uber finalized a deal on Sunday to sell a significant stake of itself to SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate,<br />paving the way for the ride-hailing company to make sweeping governance changes and to go public by 2019.<br />Upon closing, it will help fuel our investments in technology<br />and our continued expansion at home and abroad, while strengthening our corporate governance.”<br />The agreement follows an Oct. 3 Uber board meeting, in which directors voted to move forward with an investment from SoftBank.<br />If investors are reluctant to sell and SoftBank cannot hit its threshold of 14 percent<br />ownership of Uber, SoftBank can walk away from the deal, the people said.
