The 48-year-old Iranian businessman was the third choice on the short list of Uber’s board, alongside former GE CEO Jeff Immelt and Hewlett Packard Enterprises CEO Meg Whitman. On Sunday evening, Uber’s board voted largely in favor of Khosrowshahi, although it’s unclear at this point whether he will accept the board’s offer, Recode first reported.
Uber did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, and Khosrowshahi has yet to formally accept the offer.
Khosrowshahi has served as CEO of Expedia since 2005 where he helped expand the company to more than 60 countries. Prior to Expedia, the Brown University graduate served as chief financial officer of IAC (IAC), which also owns the popular dating site Match.com.
An Iranian immigrant, Khosrowshahi was one of the first tech leaders to file a legal challenge to President Trump’s travel ban, citing the potential harm it could do to the company’s employees and customers.
As Uber’s next potential CEO, Khosrowshahi inherits an embattled company rocked by months of scandal involving sexual harassment in the workplace and questionable workplace practices, which included ongoing litigation with Waymo, a self-driving company spun out by Google (GOOG, GOOGL) in late 2016.
UPDATE AT 11:33 p.m. ET on 8/27/17: Khosrowshahi has accepted the offer from Uber’s board to join the company as its next CEO, according to a source. We’ve reached out to Uber for comment.
UPDATE AT 12:53 p.m. ET on 8/28/17: IAC Chairman Barry Diller released a statement:
As you probably know by now, Dara Khosrowshahi has been asked to lead Uber. Nothing has been yet finalized, but having extensively discussed this with Dara I believe it is his intention to accept. I also know the struggle he has been having out of both his abiding enthusiasm for Expedia’s future as well as his loyalty to all of us. I know Dara would like to communicate now with all of you but I’ve asked him not to until this is fully resolved. If Dara does leave us, it will be to my great regret but also my blessing – he’s devoted 12 great years to building this Company and if this is what he wants for his next adventure it will be with my best wishes. I say that because he deserves nothing less and I say that also because he will leave behind a tremendously talented corps of executives…
We both will be back in touch very soon.
Sincerely,
Barry Diller
