TuSimple co-founder and former CEO Xiaodi Hou is on a warfare path within the lead as much as Friday’s annual shareholder assembly that can resolve the make-up of the corporate’s board of administrators.
Over the previous a number of weeks, Hou has sued TuSimple for management of his voting rights, demanded the corporate instantly liquidate and return all remaining money to shareholders, and urged courts to block TuSimple’s potential to switch funds to China.
Now, Hou is pushing shareholders to vary the board, even when meaning taking the combat exterior the annual assembly. On Monday, Hou wrote an open letter to stockholders alerting them to his plans to launch a written consent course of to take away the present board administrators and change them with ones who will assist liquidation. Which means even when the six incumbent board administrators are re-elected on the upcoming annual assembly, shareholders who need to see change may have the choice to strive once more.
TuSimple, in the meantime, has requested shareholders forward of the annual assembly to re-elect its present administrators in addition to approve a plan to stagger the board. This second proposal, if authorised, would block any future makes an attempt at eradicating all board members without delay.
TuSimple didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch to remark.
Hou is pushing for a written consent solicitation as a result of it will permit shareholders to take away administrators exterior the annual assembly cycle with the assist of a majority of the excellent voting energy, he argued within the letter.
TuSimple has been embroiled in drama for the reason that autonomous trucking firm went public in 2021. This newest chapter started after the startup shut down its U.S. operations and delisted from the stock market at first of 2024. TuSimple stated it deliberate to relaunch AV testing in China, however as a substitute it parted methods with many of the self-driving crew earlier this 12 months. Now, it seems TuSimple is angling to make use of its U.S. funds — investor money that the pre-revenue, high-cost enterprise acquired as soon as it delisted — to pay for a brand new enterprise unit in AI animation and gaming. And shareholders like Hou are not happy about it.
“I write to you as we speak not simply as an investor, however as a co-founder who has poured seven years of ardour, power, and private dedication into making TuSimple a world chief in autonomous driving,” Hou wrote in his letter to shareholders. “Sadly, beneath the corporate’s present administration and board of administrators, the prospect of reaching that imaginative and prescient is fading quick. Given the intensive record of points at TuSimple beneath the present management crew…I consider liquidation, which might return $1.93 per share (or extra) to stockholders, represents probably the most equitable path ahead for all of us.”
TuSimple’s inventory was buying and selling Monday on the over-the-counter securities market at $0.40. Hou’s estimation of a virtually $2 return per share is predicated on earlier reporting from TechCrunch that discovered TuSimple had roughly $450 million in money remaining within the U.S. as of September.
Hou was ousted from his govt positions in 2022 and resigned from the board in 2023 following accusations that he was trying to poach workers for a brand new enterprise. Hou has maintained he was fired with out simply trigger. He additionally stated he resigned from the board in protest of his successor’s hefty pay package deal amid mass layoffs on the firm.
On the finish of November, Hou sued TuSimple and Mo Chen, the corporate’s co-founder, chief producer, and director, to regain management over his voting rights. Hou has argued {that a} 2022 voting settlement granting Chen management over his Class B shares expired in 2024, thus reverting his voting rights again to him.
TuSimple and Chen have made the case that whereas Hou could also be in possession of the shares now, he nonetheless must vote as Chen directs.
The dispute over Hou’s 27.9% stake received’t be solved till the primary quarter of 2025, when a listening to is scheduled.
