David Rosenthal: evaluation

Transcript context

…I told them. I said, listen, upfront, I have a job and it's a great job. The nanosecond that my name shows up in the news, I'm out of here. I just want you to know, the nanosecond it shows up in the news, I'm out of here. But I had to be realistic that it could show up in the news. It's amazing that it didn't. Actually, at that point, I called up Barry because I couldn't put Barry in a situation or myself in a situation. I've worked with them for 13 years, probably 20 years in IAC. Even before as a banker, he and I have an incredible relationship. I owe so much to him. I couldn't take the risk of him seeing it in the press, the consequences of that, and the loss of trust. I called them up. I said, Barry, a headhunter called me about Uber. I'm going to talk to them. He's like, you're effing crazy, hung up on me. I said, oh, my God, I'm going to get fired. Nothing, dead silence. You weren't going to get fired, because what was Barry going to do, step in and be CEO himself? He wasn't going to do it. Maybe he would. I didn't know. We worked together for a long time. I called him the next day. He said, speaking as the chairman of Expedia, it will be a real mistake. But speaking as a friend, I understand why you're interested. I would be too. How can I help? That's the definition of who he is. Because we weren't in the news, we gossip about it. It's like, oh, did you hear Meg is this? It was a fun thing that we gossiped about. Actually, there was a point in time when I had to make a presentation to the Uber board. This was my big presentation, and I heard that the other candidates were coming in to present as well. This was a big day. I told him—I think it was a Saturday or Sunday—that I'm coming in making a presentation. He's like, show me the presentation. It was PowerPoint. I showed him the PowerPoint. He actually helped me with PowerPoint. He's like, this is good, this is good. You have to add this page. It shows you the kind of person he is. He put friendship in that case over his own business interest. Maybe he was sick of me. I don't know.…

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