Money.CNN reported that Google’s Waymo (Google’s self-driving car program) sued Uber for theft of trade secrets, but during the middle of trial “accepted a settlement offer from Uber, which agreed to a deal that includes 0.34% of Uber’s equity at a $72 billion valuation, which works out to about $245 million.” The February 9, 2018 article entitled “Uber and Waymo settle trade secrets lawsuit” settled even though “Waymo had initially asked for maximum damages of $1.8 billion after:
The investigation into potential trade-secret theft began in late 2016 when Waymo accidentally received an email from a supplier containing an attachment that detailed Uber’s LiDAR circuit board. Waymo claimed it looked suspiciously like its own design.
Given the settlement it sure looks like Uber decided to avoid the uncertainty of a jury verdict and appellate conflict for years to come.