Uber had survived its most serious challenge yet, pivoted (albeit reluctantly at first) into what would prove to be a much larger business, and shown itself to be a flexible player unwilling to surrender leadership in the field of transportation apps for smartphones. It had Sidecar and Lyft to thank, which Kalanick was inclined to admit when he was in a charitable mood. ‘The one area where they brought some thunder was on that regulatory piece,’ he told me in 2014. ‘I look at entrepreneurism as risk arbitrage. You are basically looking at risk and saying, “I think people are misunderstanding
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