SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 10 December 2024, Tuesday |

‘I embarrassed you’: Better.com CEO apologises for laying off 900 via zoom call

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg sent an email to the company’s remaining employees on Tuesday afternoon, after coming under fire for insulting 900 people he had just laid off.
The CEO of a digital mortgage lender based in the United States has apologised to existing staff for how he handled the situation.
“I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better. I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating it I blundered the execution. In doing so, I embarrassed you,” Garg said in the letter to current employees.
An employee shared a video of Garg’s Zoom conversation on December 1st, during which he fired around 900 SoftBank-backed staff.
The dismissals were attributed to market conditions and a drop in the company’s performance, according to the CEO.
Since the firings, the entrepreneur, who is also the founder of Better.com, has been in the middle of a storm, particularly owing to the manner in which they were announced.
The dismissed employees made up 9% of the company’s entire staff and were dispersed across the US and India.
According to Bloomberg, the mortgage lender also pushed back its public offering through a merger with Aurora Acquisition, a blank-check provider, after modifying the transaction a day before it laid off some of its employees.
According to Bloomberg, the corporation will seek additional regulatory permission after amending the merger conditions.
This will delay the transaction’s completion, which the firms had previously stated would take place in the fourth quarter.