Hyperloop One, the high-speed rail startup backed by Elon Musk whose plans were derailed by project delays and bizarre sexual harassment allegations against some executives and backers, plans to shut down.
The company has ordered its remaining employees, about 100, down from 200 at the beginning of this year, to oversee the sale of assets before their employment ends on Dec. 31, according to reports. bloomberg.
Hyperloop, which has raised more than $450 million since its founding in 2014, has gained public attention with its promise to modernize transportation technology with trains that travel at airplane-like speeds through major U.S. cities, according to Pitchbook. Collected.
The company is based in Las Vegas, where it has a small test track to develop a “vacuum tube” transportation system in which pods travel at 1,260 miles per hour.
In 2019, the company announced that Hyperloop technology could transport passengers from New York City to Washington, D.C., in just 30 minutes. By contrast, Acela trains typically take three and a half hours to travel between the two hubs.
At the time, the company touted a deal in the works to install a hyperloop system between Mumbai and Pune in India, but that ambitious plan was abandoned last year.
The startup’s remaining intellectual property will now be transferred to DP World, which will also serve as title partner for the DP World Tour, part of a new golf entity between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf.
It’s unclear whether the shell company deal was an attempt to take Hyperloop public, with the futuristic company having acquired the backing of a Shaquille O’Neal-backed special purpose acquisition company just a few months ago. I was trying that.
Hyperloop has struggled to make any progress for years, despite backing from Richard Branson (who briefly led the company to adopt the name Virgin Hyperloop One) and Elon Musk. Not yet.
According to Bloomberg, in the early days of Hyperloop, co-founder Brogan Bambrogan would arrive at work to find a rope tied to a chair.
And in 2017, co-executive chairman Shervin Pishevar came under fire after at least six allegations of sexual harassment and assault by women, including rape at a luxury London hotel, all of which he claimed I’m denying it.
Pishevar’s brother, Afshin Pishevar, was the one who left the rope that Bambrogan found on his office chair. Mr. Bambrogan was visiting from his home in Washington to join the company as general counsel, and he overstayed his welcome as a guest. bloomberg report.
Branson took the job in 2017 after Shervin Pishevar resigned from the company to recuse himself from the charges, shortly after his own sexual misconduct allegations became questionable.
Singer Antonia Ienae claims the British millionaire stuck his face between her breasts and “motorboated” her while she was attending a party on Necker Island in the Caribbean in 2010. did.
“We were by the bar and he was saying goodbye to everyone. He came up to me and shoved his face into my chest,” she told the London Sun at the time. Ta. “He said, ‘Brrrrrrrr,’ and walked away. It was surreal and completely out of the blue.”
Jenna also claimed that her shaggy-haired boss at Virgin begged her to go topless at a party, according to The Sun, which is owned by the Post’s parent company News Corp.
A year after allegations of sexual misconduct, Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, one of Hyperloop’s directors, has been arrested in Moscow on charges of fraud and embezzlement unrelated to his work with Hyperloop, according to Bloomberg. was arrested.
At the time, Magomedov’s lawyer said he was appealing his arrest.
Dubai-based logistics company DP World has been backing Hyperloop since 2016 and orchestrated Hyperloop’s merger with a shell company in April, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
At the time, the value of most types of stock was valued at zero, making the shell company’s shareholders the sole owners of Hyperloop, the media reported.
The Post has reached out to Hyperloop and DP World for comment.
O’Neal’s deal with Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II would have listed Hyperloop on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of $600 million, but the deal fell through and tied it to Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Serious doubts arose as to whether a 300-mile freight system would become a reality. It was a realistic goal.
Source: nypost.com
