Founded in 2010, Uber was initially called UberCab.
The name Uber comes from the German word meaning “above all the rest,” a quality founders Kalanick and Camp assigned to their brand.
In 2010, the San Francisco Metro Transit Authority & the Public Utilities Commission of California ordered Uber to cease and desist. On the same day, Uber officially changed its name from UberCab to Uber. The company’s founders also reasoned that Uber really wasn’t a taxicab company in the traditional sense, so there was no reason to attach the term “cab” to its name.

The one who follows the crowd, never gets ahead of the crowd.
Travis Kalanick, picture Bloomberg/Getty Images
The startup secured the domain Uber.com from Universal Music Group in exchange for a 2% stake in the company. In 2019 Uber priced its initial public offering at $45 a share, giving it a valuation of $75.5 billion. Universal Music Group did not partake in this success, since at some point before this valuation, the company sold back its shares to Uber for $1 million. Does “Oops” cover it?
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