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Benchmark’s controversial, explosive lawsuit against Travis Kalanick is officially history.
A judge on Thursday permanently dismissed the venture firm’s case against the former Uber CEO following Benchmark’s agreement to dismiss the suit. That ends a messy legal entanglement that was a leading part of Benchmark’s attempt over the last six months to marginalize Kalanick. It was Benchmark that led his ouster from the CEO chair at Uber.
Benchmark had signaled that it planned to drop the suit once Uber enacted a series of governance reforms that disempowered both Kalanick and Benchmark. Those changes took effect on Jan. 18 — the same day that Benchmark first moved to dismiss its suit, according to the filing.
“It is hereby stipulated and agreed, by and among Benchmark, Kalanick and Uber, through their undersigned counsel,” wrote Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Sam Glasscock III in his order, “that this Action and the claims asserted therein are dismissed with prejudice, and that each party shall bear its or his own costs, fees and expenses.”
Kalanick succeeded last summer in having the Delaware case sent to arbitration, but then the arbitration process crawled extremely slowly. The governance changes allowed both sides to less litigiously clear the plate for Kalanick’s successor.
Still, one has to ask: Would those governance changes have happened if Benchmark hadn’t sued in the first place?
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
