Byju’s extraordinary general meeting on Friday got off to a rocky start with unknown people allegedly trying to disrupt and sabotage it, according to investor sources.
It took over an hour to complete the roll call and verify attendees, the sources said, as hundreds of individuals attempted to join the Zoom video conferencing link for the EGM.
The joinees entered with all kinds of names; Sir Michael Knight, Natalia Cruz, Kevin Pietersen are some of the instances. Unidentified people also joined in 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, sources said.
From 170 people who tried to attend the EGM, the number of joinees came down to 37 after verification of authorised names, sources added. Of these, eight are Byju’s employee-shareholders, five people from the legal side and remaining 24 are investors.
GV Ravishankar from Peak XV, one of the organisers, appeared visibly shaken by the lack of propriety in conducting the proceedings but insisted that the meeting must proceed as planned. There was a moment when there were at least three attendees by the name of GV Ravishankar and it took the scrutinisers about five minutes to identify who the real GV Ravishankar was, said a person aware of the developments.
Both sides claimed that as the meeting started, sharp background noise hindered clear communication and made it nearly impossible to comprehend what was being said. Sources close to the investors blamed Byju’s for leaking the meeting link to ineligible members. However, company sources denied any such involvement.
As expected Byju Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath, and his brother Riju Ravindran did not attend the meeting.