Ex-Uber self-driving chief Anthony Levandowski declares bankruptcy
Uber’s former self-driving unit boss Anthony Levandowski has declared bankruptcy, after being ordered to pay Google $179m.
Anthony Levandowski has been engaged in a long-running battle with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, after it was alleged he stole secrets from the company’s autonomous driving unit Waymo.
Levandowski had been an engineer for the self-driving project, before starting a new company with colleague Lior Ron and bringing over Google employees as staff members.
The pair later sold that start-up to Uber and were hired to run the company’s autonomous driving arm.
However, an arbitration panel ruled in December that Levandowski and Ron had breached their legal obligations with Google by starting the new company and had engaged in unfair competition.
Levandowski appealed the arbitration panel’s ruling, however a San Francisco court upheld the decision today, forcing Levandowski to pay Google $179m.
It has forced him to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy and will now mean he can negotiate his debts.
Court papers showed that Levandowski has $50m to $100m in assets, with a further $100m to $500m in liabilities.
Ron, who still works at Uber, settled with Alphabet for $9.7m, which was paid by his current employer.
Uber has an agreement that it pays out legal expenses for its employees.
Waymo confirmed that it had received payment on behalf of Ron and said it would “continue to take the necessary steps to ensure our confidential information is protected”.