Travis Kalanick buys real estate company, takes CEO reins

Travis Kalanick sold $1.4 billion worth of Uber shares as part of SoftBank Group’s investment in the ride-hailing company in January. Photo: Reuters

San Francisco: After getting kicked out of the chief executive officer job at Uber Technologies Inc. in June, Travis Kalanick is getting back in the saddle.

Kalanick said Tuesday he’s buying a controlling stake in a distressed real estate company called City Storage Systems for $150 million and installing himself as CEO.

The investment represents roughly 10% of his liquid wealth. Kalanick sold $1.4 billion worth of Uber shares as part of SoftBank Group Corp.’s investment in the ride-hailing company in January. The real estate deal comes from Kalanick’s new fund, called 10100.

City Storage Systems redevelops distressed retail, parking and industrial real estate. “There are over $10 trillion in these real estate assets that will need to be re-purposed for the digital era,” Kalanick wrote in a tweet announcing the acquisition. Bloomberg