The chief executive of Better.com apologised on Wednesday after a video of him firing 900 people in the US and India last week via a Zoom call sparked outrage.
Vishal Garg has come under intense criticism after the SoftBank-backed company laid off about 9% of its workforce through the video call.
Garg held a webinar where he laid off everyone invited to the Zoom call, amounting to 15% of the workforce, just before the holidays.
The Indian-born CEO said he had “blundered the execution” of the layoffs. “I realise that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse,” Garg wrote to employees.
Reasons Behind Layoffs
He had cited the market, performance and productivity as reasons behind the decision to lay off employees.
Better.com said in May it would go public through a merger with blank-cheque firm Aurora Acquisition in a deal that valued it at $7.7 billion.
Earlier this month, the terms were amended to provide Better.com with half of the $1.5 billion committed by SoftBank immediately.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, Better.com offers mortgage and insurance products to homeowners through its online platform.
- George Russell
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