Well, this could get interesting.
Uber has hired former Lyft COO Travis VanderZanden as vice president of international growth, helping to lead the charge for the transportation company’s expansion overseas.
The move comes less than two months after VanderZanden said that he’d left Lyft to pursue other opportunities.
Incredibly proud of the growth @lyft over the last 18 months! 1 to 65 cities, more drivers than fedex, over 10M rides. Great crew.
— Travis VanderZanden (@travisv) August 19, 2014
Excited to have worked with the @lyft team, but myself and the entire Cherry/Yammer team resigned last week to pursue other opportunities.
— Travis VanderZanden (@travisv) August 19, 2014
“We are thrilled to welcome Travis to Uber,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement to Re/code. “After he left his previous employer, we talked to Travis and it was clear his experience and skills would help us strengthen our operations as we grow, expand and evaluate markets internationally.”
Lyft and Uber are bitter rivals, and this hiring certainly will cement those feelings. What will be interesting to watch is whether Lyft takes any sort of legal action. Non-compete agreements are illegal in California, but in Seattle we’ve seen two rivals get into legal squabbles where one of the agreements was not even in play.
Move Inc. sued Zillow over the hiring of former Move exec Errol Samuelson, and successfully won an injunction which has essentially placed Samuelson on the sidelines at Zillow.
