Better.com CEO apologizes after laying off 900 employees via Zoom call

[December 09, 2021]    (Reuters) - The chief executive of Better.com apologized for his manner of handling layoffs at the mortgage company after a video of him firing 900 people last week via a Zoom call went viral on social media.

Vishal Garg, who has come under intense criticism after the SoftBank-backed company laid off about 9% of its workforce through the video call, said he had "blundered the execution" of communicating the layoffs.

"I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse," Garg said in a letter dated Tuesday.

The CEO had cited the market, performance and productivity as reasons behind the decision to lay off employees in the United States and India.

Better.com said in May it would go public through a merger with blank-check firm Aurora Acquisition Corp, 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, instead of waiting till deal close.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, Better.com offers mortgage and insurance products to homeowners through its online platform.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.