(Updated: 9:03 a.m. EST, 11/11/2019)
Topline: By saying the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was “a serious mistake” and “I think that people make mistakes, it doesn’t mean that they can never be forgiven,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sparked fierce backlash and calls to boycott the ride-sharing service.
- Khosrowshahi made the comments during an Axios on HBO interview that aired Sunday night.
- He was responding to reporter Dan Primack’s questions about not attending Saudi’s annual “Davos In The Desert” summit and the company’s ties to the kingdom.
- By Monday morning, social media users were criticizing Khosrowshahi’s remarks and #BoycottUber was trending on Twitter.
- Uber’s stock price dropped slightly during premarket trading and is poised to start the week at its Friday close price.
- Saudi Arabia is Uber’s fifth-largest shareholder, according to CNBC (and recently became a $400 million investor in Uber founder Travis Kalanick’s new ghost kitchen startup).
- Uber spokesperson Matt Kallman responded to Forbes’ request for comment with a tweet from Khosrowshahi: “There’s no forgiving or forgetting what happened to Jamal Khashoggi & I was wrong to call it a ‘mistake.’ As I told @danprimack after our interview, I said something in the moment I don’t believe. Our investors have long known my views here & I’m sorry I wasn’t as clear on Axios.”
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Crucial quote: “We’ve made mistakes too, right? With self-driving, and we stopped driving and we’re recovering from that mistake. I think that people make mistakes, it doesn’t mean that they can never be forgiven. I think they have taken it seriously,” said Khosrowshahi during the interview.
Chief critics: Journalists and the international community. Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s editor at the Washington Post, joined in the online fray and said, “[Khosrowshahi] compares the murder of a human being to Uber making a tech glitch.” Elizabeth Spiers, Gawker’s founding editor, said that “having astronomical amounts of money” make people “lose empathy,” but “one too many billionaires” are showing it makes them “sociopaths.” Internationally, a United Nations report found the Saudi crown prince liable, and a CIA report said he likely ordered the killing. And the U.S., the U.K., Canada and France placed sanctions on the 15 Saudi nationals thought to have carried out the murder.
Key background: Jamal Khashoggi, a 58-year-old Washington Post columnist and Saudi native, was murdered in October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was there to obtain papers in order to marry his fiancée. Reports agree that Khashoggi was suffocated to death by Saudi agents. They then dismembered his body and transferred the remains out of the consulate in separate bags. Khashoggi’s body has never been found. Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman immediately denied being involved in the killing, a position he has not wavered from. Even though he disagreed with the CIA’s report, President Trump called it “the worst cover-up in history.”
Tangent: Uber’s latest quarterly earnings report showed losses of over $1 billion. Its stock has struggled to gain footing since going public in May. Shares plummeted due to the post-IPO lockup period, which prevents early investors from selling shares, before the period expired November 6.
