Byju Raveendran to employees: I continue to remain CEO

Embattled edtech firm Byju’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran addressed employees in a letter after a drama-filled EGM which he and his co-founder wife didn’t attend.

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  • Storyboard18,
 | February 26, 2024 , 6:02 am
A similar email that was sent in August, Raveendran had promised to clear July's salary, but payment delays have continued as the company navigates an insolvency process and major legal hurdles with US-based lenders staking claims on its India assets.
A similar email that was sent in August, Raveendran had promised to clear July's salary, but payment delays have continued as the company navigates an insolvency process and major legal hurdles with US-based lenders staking claims on its India assets.

In a letter to employees, Byju Raveendran, the CEO and founder of the edtech company, said that the rumours of him getting fired from Byju’s are inaccurate, a day after a group of investors voted in favour of his ouster, reported Moneycontrol.

“The claims made by a small group of select minority shareholders that they have unanimously passed the resolution in the EGM is completely wrong. Only 35 out of 170 shareholders (representing around 45 percent of shareholding) voted in favour of the resolution. That in itself shows the very limited support that this irrelevant meeting received,” Raveendran told employees.

Read More: Byju’s EGM drama: Phishing attack, hundreds try to join Zoom, including ‘Kevin Pietersen’, ‘Sir Michael Knight’

“Just as you can’t change the rules of a game midway without agreement from all players, we can’t alter how our company is run without following these strict guidelines,” he added.

“At yesterday’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), a lot of these essential rules were violated. This means that whatever was decided in that meeting does not count, because it didn’t stick to the established rules,” he added.

Raveendran also referred to the Karnataka High Court’s order and said any decisions made during the meeting would not be given effect until next hearing on March 13.

Read More: Four Byju’s investors file suit with NCLT against the ed-tech company

The EGM faced a number of disruptions, as unknown people tried to allegedly sabotage the meeting by various means.

Sources said that it took over an hour to complete the roll call and verify attendees as hundreds of individuals attempted to join the Zoom video-conferencing link of the EGM with all kinds of names like Sir Michael Knight, Natalia Cruz, Kevin Pietersen. Unidentified people also joined the meeting impersonating the company’s investors.

The day started with a phishing attack to attempt to disrupt the meeting. Attendees received a random notification from an unidentified source that the meeting is cancelled. However, the EGM kicked off as per schedule at 9 am IST.

Raveendran, his co-founder and wife Divya Gokulnath, and his brother Riju Raveendran did not attend the EGM.

Read More: Byju’s rights issue to raise $200 million fully subscribed

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