REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
According to Axios' Dan Primack, Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital, Ron Burkle of Yucaipa Companies, and Adam Leber of Maverick sent a petition Friday morning to other Uber investors and Uber's board of directors calling for Benchmark to step aside.
The petition also asks that Benchmark divest enough of its shares so it no longer has board appointment rights, according to Axios.
The request comes one day after Benchmark filed a lawsuit against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick over allegations of fraud. Benchmark claimed in its suit that it would never have approved a 2016 expansion of Uber's board that allowed Kalanick to fill a board seat had it been aware of the controversy surrounding Kalanick and of Uber's cultural problems. The suit accuses the former CEO of mismanagement and packing the board with supporters.
The investors' email, which was obtained by Axios, requests Benchmark remove itself from the board in order to allow Uber to "realize its full potential by allowing the necessary work to be done in the Board Room rather than Courtroom."
While the investors say they agree there are issues within Uber, they call Benchmark's tactics "ethically dubious and, critically, value-destructive rather than value enhancing."
You can read the full email over at Axios.