The courtroom drama between Uber Technologies Inc. and Waymo finally comes to an end and Uber needs to pay about $245 million to Waymo as per the settlement.
Almost a year ago, Waymo, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, accused Uber of using and implementing their trade secrets. As per Waymo, in the year 2015, Anthony Levandowski, a senior engineer of the company, formulated a tactic to steal more than 14,000 proprietary files along with the Lidar technology designs in conjunction with Uber. Lidar is used in driverless cats to look around the neighborhood.
Waymo had already received most of what it needed, and Uber, with a fundamental change in management, no longer had the emotional investment that would justify carrying on the flight. – Jim Pooley, a trade-secrets expert
However, Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, denied the accusations and expressed great regret over the situation.
To our friends at Alphabet: we are partners, you are an important investor in Uber, and we share a deep belief in the power of technology to change people’s lives for the better. Of course, we are also competitors. And while we won’t agree on everything going forward, we agree that Uber’s acquisition of Otto could and should have been handled differently. – Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO Uber
Uber has ended up by giving away 0.34% of its equity through the settlement. SoftBank Group Corp. Just completed a $9.3 billion deal with Uber in which it valued Uber shares at a blended valuation of $54 billion.
Uber acquired Otto at more than $600 million in stock. The company Otto was the brain-child of Levandowski, and was formed just before January 2016,when he resigned from Waymo. As the deal was done on the basis of meeting the target goals, most of the sum is still pending.
