BYJU’S NEW CEO Arjun Mohan, a day after mentioning his intentions and plans to bring about a cultural change at the troubled edtech major, in his book Educating A Billion published by Penguin Random House, will now be leading a layoff impacting 4,000 employees at its parent company Think & Learn Private Limited, according to sources aware of the matter.
The layoffs will be restricted to Think & Learn Private Ltd (TLP), the parent of BYJU’S, and will spare its subsidiaries that include test prep unit Aakash Educational Services, the sources said. TLP had about 19,000 employees as of last month.
The layoff exercise will impact senior employees, team managers, and junior roles across sales and other functions that will become redundant. The exercise will begin in a couple of weeks and likely be completed by the end of October,” the sources added.
“Indications of the impending layoffs have been given to the employees today,” the sources added. We are in the final stages of a business restructuring exercise to simplify operating structures, reduce the cost base and better cash flow management. BYJU’S new India CEO, Arjun Mohan, will be completing this process in the next few weeks and will steer a revamped and sustainable operation ahead, a BYJU’S spokesperson said.
Sales team within the parent company will now have only omni-channel employees, who will sell both offline and online courses, according to a source.
Meanwhile two top executives of BYJU’S Tuition Centre & Asheesh Sharma, who was handling academics at BYJU’S Tuition Centre and Surendra Pandey, the regional director of the hybrid learning arm, have quit on Tuesday, as part of restructuring exercises, according to a source.
“It will take me some time to bring the organisation into focus in the current noise, but the direction is clearly set up. And I am confident that the same thing can be done profitably. Fundraising and valuation are no more a priority; whatever happened has happened. Now the focus is on ensuring that the customer gets what she is looking for through our large variety of products,” the company’s new CEO, Arjun Mohan had mentioned in an interview on Monday around the launch of his new book while speaking about his confidence in bringing about a cultural change at the company.
The development also comes as the edtech major is looking to bail itself out of a financial and legal crisis by committing to fully repay its $1.2 billion term loan B within the upcoming six months, by selling some of its key assets.
Great Learning, and Epic, have been put up for sale, while its other assets such as Osmos, are being reviewed as options for sale if it does not manage to generate about a billion dollars from the sale of the entities it has already put up in the market.
The company is also in talks with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to raise fresh funds expected in trances. However, this is entirely dependent on the company keeping up its promise of revealing its much delayed financial results for FY22 by the end of September.