Uber Chooses Expedia’s Chief as C.E.O., Ending Contentious Search

This could be a good pick for Uber. Khosrowshahi is brilliant, highly qualified, a stellar example of American Iranian Jewish heritage/culture. These international people have excelled in the realm of business/trading thousands of years..

I give up -- why should Uber do this?

"Unless they are a company that supplies cars ... they are a criminal operation..."

Why should they have to supply cars?

"Never go with anyone except your first choice."

"First choice" means the person YOU choose AND who chooses you back. He WAS Uber's "first choice." The board couldn't agree on anyone else.

Get serious -- all they're doing is driving a car!

"Khosrowshahi probably wanted the job for the exciting opportunity to jettison the rabble drivers who think they're due benefits and understanding."

I'm glad to have ride-sharing companies around. But let's not kid ourselves here: All these drivers are doing is driving a car. That's not exactly rocket science.

Before Uber and Lyft and the others came along, a driver's car would probably be parked all day, making him nothing. If a driver doesn't like what Uber and Lyft and the others are offering, he can just park his car all day like he used to, and it will once again make him nothing.

One doesn't have to be an economist to understand that the price of labor for Uber and Lyft will be determined by consumers, not by drivers' demands. If one of these companies gets a reputation for slow service -- which could happen if the company doesn't pay drivers enough -- the company will start to increase driver rates. But if not, it will just keep paying lower and lower driver rates, just like the rest.

"Uber exploits people, not unlike Lyft."

Neither company forces anyone to work for it. A couple of years back, Lyft drivers bragged about how much they were making. Now they mostly complain about how little they're making. Things definitely seem to have gotten worse for drivers.

But there's a solution! Just don't drive. Nobody's forcing anyone to drive for Uber or Lyft. And nobody's forcing them to hire anyone. From what I've heard, Uber or Lyft is something to consider between jobs, but not as a substitute for a regular job.

By the way, Uber and Lyft (and others) seem to be "on" to many drivers' practices of working simultaneously for more than one company. They seek to combat this, without transforming "independent contractors" into "employees," by changing their compensation schemes so that drivers are rewarded for focusing on one company -- for example, higher driver rates if the driver has logged X hours for the month or quarter or whatever. I wonder whether some of those "loyalty" schemes concocted by Uber and Lyft and the others are violations of any labor laws (as disguised means of restricting the freedom of ostensibly independent contractors), but that's what they're doing, legal or not.

There's an old adage: "Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

Uber has never asked for either, though. In France and India, for example (and probably other countries -- I stopped checking), Uber just started operating and promptly got challenged by the authorities. Maybe it's the lawyer in me, but I read what France and India were claiming and it seemed like Uber was dead wrong in both places. I understand that some legal battles can be transformed into PR battles, but Uber had better hope that happens in France and India. If the courts get to decide in either place, Uber is dead in the water.

"Uber is a fantastic innovation."

I agree (though not about Uber -- just about ride-sharing).

But let's not kid ourselves about what's happening:

Uber and Lyft are just like taxicab companies -- unregulated, but still just like taxi-cab companies.

Lending Club and SoFi are just like banks -- unregulated, but still just like banks.

Uber and Lyft exist because riders are tired of the higher fares that accompany heavy regulation of taxi companies, and ride-share companies are willing and able to offer lower fares. Lending Club and SoFi exist because borrowers (and lenders) are tired of the higher interest rates that accompany heavy regulation of banks and other lenders, and non-traditional lenders are willing and able to offer lower rates and/or faster approvals.

One of two things is true:

1. These "new economy" upstarts are just like their "old economy" counterparts, and, therefore, should be regulated just as heavily.

OR

2. Neither the "new economy" upstarts nor their their "old economy" counterparts should be so heavily regulated.

I was hoping that under Dara Expedia would buy TripAdvisor which seems to be at an inflection point needing new management. Steve Kaufman has done a great job as founder and building the user base, but needs help in monetization as it stumbles in its efforts to be a hotel booking site. Its acquisitions are left pretty much on their own (E.g. why is Cruise Critic still located near Princeton, NJ when it should be in Miami to better sell the cruise ship industry?). Ad sale badly needs to broaden its advertiser base , including non travel categories to reach its higher spending users, but will need new top sales management to do so. Perhaps some other saviour will come along.

Never go with anyone except your first choice. There is always a reason why they were not your first choice.

Kosrowshahi is an Iranian born immigrant. Aside from all his other qualifications, let him bring his Persian talents along with him. Persia is one of the oldest formidable still living cultures on the globe. What an opportunity to counter the anti-Iranian prejudices that live in our world. Bravo.....

"But Uber’s future became murkier this year when the company was pummeled by scandal after scandal..."

I understand that the politically correct guardians of the NYT want this to be true, but it's provably false. As the NYT itself reported just a few days ago:

"In the second quarter, Uber’s gross bookings rose to $8.7 billion, up 17 percent from the previous quarter. Uber’s adjusted net revenue — or the amount of money earned after paying out its drivers — jumped to $1.75 billion from $1.5 billion over the same period. Ride requests increased 150 percent from a year ago..."

That's not murky. In fact, it's quite clear: Uber is fine.

Uber exploits people, not unlike Lyft. You work for them, you eat the liability and overhead and get Walmart wages. These exploitive "tech" companies can go the way of Webvan in my opinion.

Whitman stated that she is “fully committed to H.P.E. and plan to remain the company’s C.E.O.” while she was negotiating to leave HPE for Uber.

That's called lying. Her word, her bond, has no value.

Khosrowshahi probably wanted the job for the exciting opportunity to jettison the rabble drivers who think they're due benefits and understanding.

The smile on this guys face shows the level of excitement the corporate class feels leaping into the fully automated world of artificially intelligent robotics -- it is like the emotion felt at the start of the first and second Industrial Revolution: we are at the verge of the third Industrial Revolution and the excitement is palpable.

Offshoring jobs has the same effect of automating jobs where the American worker has no work but still has to go shopping. If we thought the resentment to workers taking our jobs over seas was bad, or the resentment of "aliens" coming into our country taking our jobs was bad, just wait until automated computers and machinery take over our jobs, the hatred will be unlike any we've seen before, and it won't be against the nuts and bolts and wires, it will be at the smiling jerks who think they just hit the lottery.

Couldn't find a competent woman? Let's just recycle male Silicon Valley CEOs...

Khosrowshahi is infamous for ruining the fabulously successful vacation home listing site, VRBO.com. His complete disinterest in understanding the vacation home rental business, and total disregard for the insights and experience of the tens of thousands of vacation rental owners doesn't bode well for drivers or customers. I had made moves to add the Lyft app to my phone; now I'm going to remove the Uber app. Good luck, Uber drivers.

Khosrowshahi is not exactly known for promoting the cause of women in the workplace - very bad choice for CEO of Uber.

Good luck getting the Expedia exec to straighten out Uber.
Expedia is okay - unless and until there's a problem with the arrangements. Then it's woe to the consumer.
Never again, Expedia. Never again.

I don't do business with either of them, Uber, Expedia. Never will.

How could soon to be gone GE CEO Jeff Immelt even be in the running? Immelt has done nothing with GE in 16 years. The stock is less than half of what it was when he became CEO in 2001. Granted he inherited a hallowed out GE that the most overrated to ever live Jack Welch built. Immelt double downed on mortgages just before the crash and recently bought into oil services at the top before it crashed. Sad that these aging men who have more money than one could ever spend, need and want more. Some people just need to learn to walk away and smell the roses.

WHat a surprise....Uber narrows the field down to three....and ends up with it's 3rd choice candidate.

Please note: one more hard working immigrant to lead an American Company and help the American economy.

I hope they can come clean and fix the system. It's a great idea, but they have a lot of problems to address.

I have a friend that dove for Uber. Got ripped off by Uber and now drive for a competitor.

Still the best deal in town. Just tap into your phone, get a good driver, good car, great price and on your way. Great company hopefully will get even better with new CEO.

Shaved head and facial. He will do well.
I know what happened on 1.20.2017,but what happened on 1.20.2016?

I continue to be baffled by how easily people get into cars with unregulated strangers. Uber drivers do not undergo the same screenings and requirements as taxi drivers who own medallions. The rising number of sexual assaults and other physical attacks by Uber drivers against riders is outrageous. Uber needs to be regulated by the government just like medallion taxi drivers who pay thousands of dollars for their licenses.

Our parents taught us not to get into cars with strangers and that is just what you are doing when some unregulated unknown picks you up on a random street corner. I can't think of more creepy service.

Not Whitman or Immelt? Well, at least he has that going for him...

Jeez can the NYT not write one article without mentioning Trump?

Bet you didn't know this...

About a year ago, my son worked for a company that hired independent-contractor drivers to deliver food (there are about half a dozen such companies here in San Francisco). Many drivers worked for his company AND for one or several other "gig economy" companies. They'd keep multiple dispatch radios turned on and take whatever gig would pay them the most. They'd accept that gig, turn off their radios, stuff the other company's dashboard symbols under the driver seat, and head to pick up their passenger (or their food, or their parcel, or whatever).

So far, so good. These drivers are independent contractors, after all, and so they may accept (or not) whatever gig gets offered to them. What used to irk my son, however, was that a substantial number of drivers would take very roundabout routes to pick up their delivery item (passenger, food, parcel, whatever), suggesting strongly that they were doing two gigs at a time -- for example, picking up food for Company 1, then picking up a passenger for Company 2, then dropping off the passenger for Company 1, then dropping off the food for Company 2. That's a no-no.

At least in the case of my son's company, each driver's vehicle had a GPS device on it, so the company (i.e. my son) could track their route. Riders often didn't know this was happening. If an Uber or Lyft driver showed up in 12 minutes rather than 6, how would the rider know he'd stopped off at some restaurant to pick up food for delivery?

Having spent a number of years in the fleet and rental car businesses I was asked to meet with Uber executives at their HQ. This was more than three years ago.

After our review we made several recommendations.

1) Focus on safety. Even a cursory review of vehicles would suffice as a start.

2) The leasing program was not going to work

3) Driver screening and training was essential

There were others but they were red hot and brilliant with no experience or operators in sight. At the time our recommendations were disregarded or poorly executed. Unmitigated growth and staying out of the reach of regulators trumped everything.

If Trump can be president then anyone can run Uber

Dara, you will be missed at Expedia. This is an inspired choice for Uber.

Khosrowshahi and Kalanick almost sounds like cousins which is good for the survival of Uber.

He doesn't like Trump? Hmmm... maybe I'll put the Uber app back on my phone...

User's problems are will only get worse.

Here in San Francisco, Lyft (among others) competes strongly with Uber (whose headquarters is on two floors in a building where my son works, for another company). Many SFers won't use Uber at all (my wife, for example), and that number seems to be growing. I have no doubt that Uber competitors -- Lyft foremost among them -- have benefitted from Uber's troubles.

That's what the new CEO needs to turn around, and, frankly, I doubt he will, or can. Last I heard, Uber has a valuation of $70 billion. That's utterly absurd, and its absurdity will soon sink in to those who are thinking of buying its stock -- and to those who already own it.

Mr. Khosrowshahi sure has his work cut out for him. Good luck. I deleted my Uber app a year ago. We'll all be watching to see if the company changes enough to become an ethical choice for consumers.

Perhaps this choice proves the old adage "third time is a charm. Or in this case "choice"

All reporting on Uber at this point needs to include the sentence "Uber lost $2.8 Billion last year." Why do these stories so rarely mention the scope of the company's losses?

Yep. And that probably won't change.

" ... [Uber] subsidizes the cost to the consumer, generating huge losses."

So far, fares to riders have stayed fairly low because Uber (and then its competitors) squeezes its drivers, who complain loudly to riders about working twice as many hours to make the same amount as they used to make two years ago.(I can't count the cars I see on SF streets that have BOTH the Uber logo and the logo of one or more competitors inside. The driver keeps multiple dispatch radios turned on, and takes whichever gig will pay him or her the most. Only after the driver chooses Uber (if the driver does) does the driver become an "Uber driver" to a rider. The other companies' little dashboard symbols get stuffed under the driver's seat -- for a few minutes, at least.)

If this trend continues, the ride-sharing companies will lose more and more drivers to other "gig economy" businesses (there are dozens of them here in SF -- some carry passengers; others deliver food; and on and on and on), which will increase Uber losses -- unless, of course, Uber cuts fares to riders, which will squeeze Uber from the other direction as more riders switch to other ride-share companies who do.

Either way, it doesn't look good for Uber, at least here in San Francisco (its headquarters city).

When Lou Gerstner was brought into IBM, he didn't have any technology experience. But he understood business and what IBM's clients wanted. Uber could have made a similar move with Mr. Immelt. Uber needs a seasoned chief executive.

The reality, however, is that as much as using Uber has become ingrained into people's daily habits, the company subsidizes the cost to the consumer, generating huge losses. Will they still be as successful when the price skyrockets to yield a profit to investors?

The comment of "it was apparent that Mr. Immelt did not have the software experience that some board members deemed important for the Uber chief executive role: shows how Uber's so called board members really have no clue. Mr. Immelt ran one of the largest multi-industry companies for years. What did the board think he was going to program the Android app?

This kind of thinking is why companies never hire the right person, at a VP level or CEO or even lower in the company ranks. This is why I laugh thinking back when I was up for a VP spot and was told that I didn't have the software experience for a particular software product. In fact, I had 25+ years of software experience management and that the product in question had only been out for less than 12 months. Silly.

As an Uber driver, I'd say the company just needs some logical tweaks rather than an overhaul. It does seem the company needs to acknowledge, internally, that drivers are The Face of Uber to all Uber riders — and move forward from there.