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Bill Gurley Is Leaving Uber’s Board

(www.nytimes.com)
198 points 101carl | 2 comments | 22 Jun 17 00:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.399s | source
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johan_larson ◴[22 Jun 17 01:32 UTC] No.14609498[source]▶
I remain flabbergasted by all of this upheaval at Uber. What's happening is the sort of housecleaning I would expect if the company had to file for bankruptcy or got caught flat out bribing judges or something. But really, what triggered all this was acting like jerks.

It seems to me, what should have happened (a long time ago) was that they got shut down for systematically breaking the law, or encouraging others to do so. That would have made sense.

But instead they are getting flayed alive by not much more than bad press for being jerks. Makes no goddamn sense.

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beaner ◴[22 Jun 17 01:59 UTC] No.14609591[source]▶
I feel like it makes perfect sense. It's capitalism in action. They are free to act like jerks, and their users and stakeholders are free to punish them for it.
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stale2002 ◴[22 Jun 17 02:44 UTC] No.14609771[source]▶
Hostile work environments are not "just bring jerks", it is illegal.
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1. beaner ◴[22 Jun 17 03:14 UTC] No.14609886[source]▶
I guess how you read my comment might depend on how sensitive you are to the criticisms. All I mean to say is that bad business gets economically punished. Internal culture is part of a business' reputation. I do not condone hostile work environments and neither do most people. This is why they are being punished. Uber must obey the law, they are not exempt from it. But economics has actually been more swift at enacting change here. I just think it's an interesting observation.
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2. johncolanduoni ◴[22 Jun 17 03:42 UTC] No.14609978[source]▶
There's lots of bad business in lots of industries that goes unpunished, especially if we only include punishment due to economic forces/social pressure. Want to take any bets on whether Kalanick (who holds a voting majority) would have been ousted if Uber was profitable and not depending on future funding rounds to merely survive?