Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been offered the top job at ride-hailing firm Uber.
Khosrowshahi has not yet confirmed whether he will accept the CEO role, but Expedia said in a memo yesterday that he was ‘likely’ to do so.
Although he has a track record of delivering profits while driving growth through targeted acquisitions, Khosrowshahi was not touted as a potential chief executive for Uber.
Khosrowshahi was offered the Uber role ahead of big hitters Jeffrey Immelt, the former chief of General Electric, and Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman.
Whitman was thought to be frontrunner but ultimately there were disagreements with the Uber board over certain issues including what influence former CEO Travis Kalanick, who was ousted in June, would have.
Kalanick is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with major Uber shareholder Benchmark.
During the 12 years he has been CEO at Expedia, Khosrowshahi has overseen a series of big billion-dollar acquisitions, including home sharing platform HomeAway and Orbitz Worldwide.
Expedia posted net income of $281.8 million in 2016 on turnover of nearly $8.8 billion.
