CEO Fires 900 People Over Zoom After Securing Billion-Dollar Funding
Featured 12/03/2021
Vishal Garg, CEO of mortgage financing company Better.com, cited "changes to the market" as the reasons for laying off 900 people (15% of the company's workforce) over the course of an awkward 3-minute Zoom call.
While market forces and unforeseen losses can certainly justify this kind of action, this particular move struck many as odd since the company just secured a $750 million cash injection from backer Softbank. The company also has an upcoming SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp., thus giving Better.com nearly $1 billion in cash on its balance sheets.
While it's true that the housing market IS starting to cool down after a ridiculous run-up earlier this year, a lot of that unsustainable hype was fueled by companies like Zillow and Better.com, so hearing Garg wax poetic about how he cried the first time he had to do mass layoffs and that he'll hopefully be 'strong enough' to not do that again was probably REALLY comforting for his suddenly-fired-before-the-holidays employees.
While market forces and unforeseen losses can certainly justify this kind of action, this particular move struck many as odd since the company just secured a $750 million cash injection from backer Softbank. The company also has an upcoming SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp., thus giving Better.com nearly $1 billion in cash on its balance sheets.
While it's true that the housing market IS starting to cool down after a ridiculous run-up earlier this year, a lot of that unsustainable hype was fueled by companies like Zillow and Better.com, so hearing Garg wax poetic about how he cried the first time he had to do mass layoffs and that he'll hopefully be 'strong enough' to not do that again was probably REALLY comforting for his suddenly-fired-before-the-holidays employees.
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