Uber settles trade-secret lawsuit with Waymo for a rumoured $245m
Waymo was looking for $1.86bn in damages
San Francisco — Uber Technologies has settled the high-stakes trade-secret theft lawsuit brought by Waymo, resolving a conflict that has already cost the ride-hailing giant its top driverless car engineer and threatened to further embarrass the company. Uber agreed to pay 0.34% of its equity, or about $245m, according to a person with knowledge of the accord. Tony West, Uber’s general counsel, declined to comment on the settlement figure. The court showdown captivated Silicon Valley during a year in which Uber weathered multiple scandals that drove co-founder Travis Kalanick out of his job as CEO. Uber and Waymo are rivals in the nascent autonomous driving industry, which both companies believe to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year in revenue. Waymo, a unit of Alphabet, alleged that one of its senior engineers, Anthony Levandowski, hatched a plan with Uber in 2015 for him to steal more than 14,000 proprietary files, including the designs for lidar (light detection and r...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.