Travis Kalanick: 🙏🏻

Image: Getty

A fraud lawsuit brought against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick by investor Benchmark Capital was sent to arbitration on Wednesday, and Kalanick is feeling blessed.

When Prism CEO and Uber investor Steve Russell shared a status on Facebook praising the judge’s order—“Benchmark just got #Benchmarked !! The good guys prevail as judge tosses rogue VC’s ‘creative’ arguments out of court”—Kalanick sounded off in the comments.

“Thanks Steve Russell,” wrote Kalanick, “🙏🏻… much ❤️”

On Wednesday, the former CEO passed the torch to Uber’s new head, Dara Khosrowshahi, in an all-hands meeting just hours before the lawsuit was sent to arbitration. Benchmark sued Kalanick for fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty on August 10.

“Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, to entrench himself on Uber’s Board of Directors and increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends,” the lawsuit stated, Axios reported. “Kalanick’s overarching objective is to pack Uber’s Board with loyal allies in an effort to insulate his prior conduct from scrutiny and clear the path for his eventual return as CEO—all to the detriment of Uber’s stockholders, employees, driver-partners, and customers.”

Since then, Kalanick has been in a messy battle with the venture capital firm, but the move to arbitration marks a win for him. This means that rather than a potentially disparaging public deposition, the details of the dispute will remain private.

“Mr. Kalanick is pleased that the court has ruled in his favor today and remains confident that he will prevail in the arbitration process,” a Kalanick spokesperson told Recode. “Benchmark’s false allegations are wholly without merit and have unnecessarily harmed Uber and its shareholders.”

Prayer hands up.

[Johana Bhuiyan]