Byju’s closes all offices except headquarters, asks 14,000 employees to work from home: report

Byju’s has asked its 14,000 employees to work from home (documents)

New Delhi:

Edtech company Byju’s has asked its 14,000 employees to work from home as it vacated all its offices except its Bengaluru headquarters amid the ongoing crisis.

Sources told NDTV Profit that except for IBC Knowledge Park in Bengaluru, where over 1,000 employees work, all other offices across the country have been vacated by the edtech giant.

According to NDTV Profit, this process has been going on for the past few months as the company did not renew several contracts across city offices as a way to cut costs.

However, around 300 tuition centers (physical spaces where students in grades 6 to 10 study) in Byju will continue to operate, the report said.

Byju’s has been facing cash flow problems and is embroiled in a dispute with creditors over a $1.2 billion loan. Byju’s was once valued at more than $20 billion, but its valuation has plummeted 90% in the past year.

Byju’s key stakeholders last month voted to remove Byju Raveendran as chief executive officer (CEO) and strip him of his responsibilities.

The move was rejected by Byju’s, which said the resolution was passed at a meeting attended by only a “few select shareholders”. “Byju’s firmly states that the resolution passed at the recently concluded EGM… is invalid and of no effect,” the company said in a statement.

Byju Raveendran has lost the support of major investors after a series of crises, including the resignation of auditor Deloitte over corporate governance issues and a legal battle with Bank of America. Mr Raveendran wrote to staff last month saying the company was unable to process February payroll because its funding was still blocked by investors.