Byju’s has instructed its 14,000 employees to adopt a work-from-home arrangement, closing down all its offices except the headquarters in Bengaluru amid the ongoing crisis.
According to sources, Byju’s has vacated all office premises across the country, except the IBC Knowledge Park in Bengaluru, where over 1,000 employees are based. This process has been underway for several months, involving the non-renewal of contracts for offices in various cities as part of cost-cutting measures.
Despite this, approximately 300 of Byju’s tuition centers, physical spaces where students in classes 6-10 study, will continue their operations.
Facing cash-flow challenges and entangled in a dispute with creditors over a $1.2 billion loan, Byju’s, once valued at over $20 billion, has witnessed a significant decline in its valuation, estimated to be around 90 percent over the past year.
Last month, major stakeholders in Byju’s voted to remove Byju Raveendran from his position as CEO, stripping him of his role. Byju’s contested this move, claiming the resolution was passed in a meeting attended only by a “small cohort of select shareholders,” asserting that the resolutions were invalid and ineffective.
Byju’s Raveendran has lost support from key investors amid various crises, including the resignation of auditor Deloitte over corporate governance issues and legal disputes with US lenders. In a communication to staff last month, Mr. Raveendran mentioned the firm’s inability to process February salaries due to funding being blocked by investors.