Jeff Jones, the former Target CMO who joined Uber less than a year ago as president of its ride-hailing business, is leaving the company, as Recode first reported and Uber confirmed to Axios.
Jones is exiting as the company deals with a flurry of recent controversies, including allegations of sexual harassment. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick recently announced a search for a COO to help him better steer the ship, and it appears to have been a factor in Jones' decision to leave.
"After we announced our intention to hire a COO, Jeff came to the tough decision that he doesn't see his future at Uber," Kalanick wrote in an email to employees on Sunday obtained by Bloomberg.
Update: "We want to thank Jeff for his six months at the company and wish him all the best," Uber said in a statement.
The story has been updated with Uber's confirmation and information from an email sent to Uber employees.
It turns out the Clinton and Trump campaigns don't like hailing cabs either.
Hamilton Place Strategies combed through the election campaign spending data and found that the two presidential campaigns used Uber more than three times as much as traditional taxis. Uber accounted for more than 3/4 of ride expenses under $100, compared to 22.9 percent for taxis and just 1.6 percent for Lyft.
Both campaigns also dabbled with Home Away and AirBnB, but traditional hotels still accounted for 99 percent of lodging expenses.
Why it matters: Fake news has affected the whole country, but the social networks and platforms to help distribute them are based in Silicon Valley, leaving the tech industry and the journalists that cover it to wrestle with the consequences and possible solutions.
Here's what a group of journalists — BuzzFeed reporter Alex Kantrowitz, CNBC editorial director Matt Rosoff, NYT reporter Katie Benner, USA Today SF bureau chief Jon Swartz and The Information's Tom Dotan — had to say about fake news at an event in San Francisco on Thursday.
