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The Uber board of directors voted unanimously to adopt all recommendations from a report stemming from allegations of sexual harassment at the company and other employee concerns, a board representative said on Sunday.

The board, at a meeting on Sunday, adopted a series of recommendations from former US Attorney General Eric Holder following a sprawling, multi-month investigation into Ubers cultures and practices.

The recommendations will be released to Uber employees on Tuesday, said the representative, who declined to be identified.

Holder and his law firm were retained by Uber in February to investigate company practices after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing what she described as sexual harassment and the lack of a suitable response by senior managers.

The recommendations in Holders firms report are expected to force greater controls on spending, human resources and other areas where executives led by Chief Executive Travis Kalanick have had a surprising amount of autonomy for a company with more than 12,000 employees, a source familiar with the matter said.

The meeting, which Uber did not publicize, is a pivotal moment for the worlds most valuable venture-backed private company that has upended the tightly regulated taxi industry in many countries but has also run into legal trouble with a rough-and-tumble approach to local regulations and the way it handles employees and drivers.

Ubers image, culture and practices have been largely defined by Kalanicks brash approach, company insiders and investors previously told Reuters.

Also at the meeting on Sunday, board members were expected to discuss Kalanick temporarily stepping away from the embattled ride-hailing firm possibly returning to a role with less authority and other changes to executive leadership.

The company also plans to appoint Wan Ling Martello, an executive vice president at Nestle SA, to the board, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The boards decisions follow a series of public-relations crises for Uber. The company faces a criminal probe related to a technology it created called Greyball that was used to deceive regulators in cities where it was operating.

Ubers self-driving car program is in jeopardy after a lawsuit from Alphabet alleging trade secrets theft, and the company has suffered an exodus of several of its top executives.

One Uber investor called the boards decisions on Sunday a step in the right direction, giving Uber an opportunity to reboot.

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Uber to adopt recommendations from Eric Holder probe | New ...

SAN FRANCISCO Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] Chief Executive Travis Kalanick is likely to take a leave of absence from the troubled ride-hailing company, but no final decision has yet been made, according to a source familiar with the outcome of a Sunday board meeting.

Emil Michael, senior vice president and a close Kalanick ally, has left the company, the source said.

At the Sunday meeting, the company's board adopted a series of recommendations from the law firm of former U.S Attorney General Eric Holder following a sprawling, multi-month investigation into Uber's culture and practices, according to a board representative.

Uber will tell employees about the recommendations on Tuesday, said the representative, who declined to be identified.

The company is also adding a new independent director, Nestle executive and Alibaba board member Wan Ling Martello, a company spokesman said.

Holder and his law firm were retained by Uber in February to investigate company practices after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing what she described as sexual harassment and a lack of a suitable response by senior managers.

The recommendations in Holder's firm's report place greater controls on spending, human resources and other areas where executives led by Kalanick have had a surprising amount of autonomy for a company with more than 12,000 employees, sources familiar with the matter said.

Kalanick and two allies on the board have voting control of the company. Kalanick's forceful personality and enormous success with Uber to date, as well as his super-voting shares, have won him broad deference in the boardroom, according to the people familiar with the deliberations.

Any decision to take a leave of absence will ultimately be Kalanick's, one source said.

The world's most valuable venture-backed private company has found itself at a crossroads as its rough-and-tumble approach to local regulations and handling employees and drivers has led to a series of problems.

It is facing a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice over its use of a software tool that helped its drivers evade local transportation regulators, sources have told Reuters.

Last week, Uber said it fired 20 staff after another law firm looked into 215 cases encompassing complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, unprofessional behavior, bullying and other employee claims.

SILICON VALLEY SHOCK

Even a temporary departure by Kalanick would be a shock for the Silicon Valley startup world, where company founders in recent years have enjoyed more autonomy and often become synonymous with their firms.

Uber's image, culture and practices have been largely defined by Kalanick's brash approach, company insiders and investors previously told Reuters.

Uber board member Arianna Huffington said in March that Kalanick needed to change his leadership style from that of a "scrappy entrepreneur" to be more like a "leader of a major global company." The board has been looking for a chief operating officer to help Kalanick run the company since March.

The debate over Kalanick's future comes as he is also facing a personal trauma: His mother died last month in a boating accident, in which his father was also badly injured.

Michael, described by employees as Kalanick's closest deputy, has been a recurring flashpoint for controversy at the company.

He once discussed hiring private investigators to probe the personal lives of reporters writing stories faulting the company. Kalanick disavowed and publicly criticized the comments.

Michael will be replaced as the company's top business development executive by David Richter, currently an Uber vice president, the company spokesman said.

Alongside Uber's management crisis, its self-driving car program is in jeopardy after a lawsuit from Alphabet Inc alleging trade secrets theft, and the company has suffered an exodus of top executives.

One Uber investor called the board's decisions on Sunday a step in the right direction, giving Uber an "opportunity to reboot."

(Reporting by Heather Somerville and Joseph Menn; Editing by Bill Rigby and Meredith Mazzilli)

TAIPEI Apple Inc and computing giant Dell Inc will join a Foxconn-led consortium bidding for Toshiba Corp's highly prized chip unit, the CEO of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer told Reuters on Monday.

NEW YORK Apple shares were stung by a broker downgrade for a second straight week on Monday, sending the stock lower to keep the tech sector under pressure for a second straight session.

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Uber CEO Kalanick likely to take leave, SVP Michael out: source - Reuters

Uber's board met for hours on Sunday to discuss and make a decision about the results of Eric Holder's investigation into the company's culture, according to the New York Times. Here's what we know so far:

The report recommends axing Emil Michael, Uber SVP and crony to CEO Travis Kalanick. But the board hasn't made a final decision on whether to fire him. Michael has been involved in the mishandling of an Indian woman's medical records, was present at an outing to a South Korean escort bar with employees, and also once threatened to hire a team to dig up negative information on a journalist who had written unfavorable stories about Uber.

Kalanick has suggested he take leave of absenceto recover from a tragic event that took his mother's life. The board is allowing Kalanick to make this decision on his own.

A board representative says that it will accept all the recommendations put forth in Holder's report.

The report follows a series of departures, including Eric Alexander, who obtained the medical records of an Indian woman who was raped by an Uber driver. As Uber attempts to clean up its act, it's facing a major decision in Egypt. The government is looking to pass a law that would require Uber to share its live ride-hailing data, also known as "heaven," according to the New York Times. If parliament passes a law requiring companies doing business in the country to keep servers on Egyptian soil and share data with law enforcement, it may need to make a major decision about whether or not to stay in the country.

Stay tuned for lots more Uber news this week.

[Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images] RR

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Uber shakeup: Here's everything that leaked about Eric Holder's investigation this weekend - Fast Company

Some good news out of the embattled DOJ:

The Justice Department announced Wednesday it will no longer allow prosecutors to strike settlement agreements with big companies directing them to make payouts to outside groups, ending an Obama-era practice that Republicans decried as a slush fund that padded the accounts of liberal interest groups.

In a memo sent to 94 U.S. attorneys offices early Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would end the practice that allowed companies to meet settlement burdens by giving money to groups that were neither victims nor parties to the case. [Fox News]

That such a policy was ever in place is extraordinary. To recap: Under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, the Justice Department regularly designed legal settlements in which well-heeled defendants were encouraged (read: forced) to donate money to third parties with no legal connection to the casebeing adjudicated. So, for example, the DOJ used mortgage-lending settlements with JP Morgan, Citi, and Bank of America to funnel millions of dollars to community redevelopment organizations, housing groups, and non-profit legal-aid organizations. Naturally, the beneficiaries wereselected by theDOJ.

Thereare several problems here.

First, this process constituted an end run around Article I appropriations procedures. By law, the House has the power of the purse; the body most responsive to the voters is tasked with allocating their money. However, the DOJs practice made it possible for unelected bureaucrats to funnel money to pet causes outside of the normal appropriations process. So, for fiscal year 2016, Congress appropriated $47 million to the Department of Housing and Urban Developments Housing Counseling program, but the program ended up having an extra $30 million to work with because of a windfall from mortgage-lending settlements. (The Government Accountability Office rationalized that this practice was not illegal because the money was provided voluntarily.)

Second, and to no ones surprise, this lack of congressional oversight has resulted in some questionable payouts. The National Council of La Raza received a seven-figure grant from mortgage-lending settlements on the grounds that it is urgently engaged in housing issues. Other groups with decided left-wing leanings the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the National Urban League, for example also benefited handsomely.

Finally, so zealous was the Holder DOJ to channel cash to partisan allies that it disincentivized compensating actual victims. When it came to paying down settlement obligations, dollar-for-dollar credit was given for donations to legal plaintiffs in the cases, but dollars donated to third parties were worth double. So, third-party organizations that, again, had no legal connection to the case being adjudicated would compete against victims for settlement money, and companies had a strong financial incentive to pay them, instead of the actual victims.

In January, Virginia congressman Bob Goodlatte (R) introduced the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017. A similar bill, sponsored by Oklahoma senator James Lankford (R), is awaiting action in the Senate. The Justice Departments decision to end this dubious Obama-rea practice is a good one, but Congress should pass this legislation nonetheless to protect its Article I prerogatives, and to preempt an effort by a future administration to reinstate this scandalous policy.

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Good Riddance to the Obama DOJ's Scandalous Settlement 'Slush Fund' Policy - National Review

Sacramento Bee

CA Assembly won't renew contract with Eric Holder | The ... Sacramento Bee The California Assembly will not renew its contract with Covington and Burling, the law firm of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder who Democratic ... Eric Holder firm's contract with California Assembly will expireThe Mercury News California Says Goodbye to Eric Holder Contract (Sort Of) | The ...The Recorder all 3 news articles »

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CA Assembly won't renew contract with Eric Holder | The ... - Sacramento Bee