EXCLUSIVE: BYJU’S Sacks 600 Employees From Content, Marketing Teams In Ongoing Restructuring Exercise

Troubled edtech giant BYJU’S laid off nearly 600 employees from the content and marketing teams in October as part of its ongoing restructuring exercise, sources told Inc42. 

The move impacted the content and video team more than the marketing team as the former division was shut entirely, the sources said, adding that teachers and educators who were part of the content production team were also impacted by the move. 

The layoffs were part of the retrenchment exercise being carried out under the leadership of BYJU’S new India CEO Arjun Mohan. The development follows a report about BYJU’S marketing head Atit Mehta, content head Asheesh Sharma, and heads of other verticals exiting the company. 

A detailed questionnaire on the latest developments sent by Inc42 to BYJU’S remained unanswered till the time of publishing this story.

Last month, Inc42 reported that BYJU’S planned to lay off nearly 3,500-4,000 employees. The layoff numbers were only for Think & Learn Private Ltd, the parent company of BYJU’S, and didn’t include its subsidiaries, sources told Inc42 then.

In a statement, a BYJU’S spokesperson had then said, “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.”

BYJU’S Many Troubles

The edtech decacorn is currently fighting on multiple fronts and has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

 It was also involved in a legal battle in the US with the lenders of its $1.2 Bn Term Loan B and is currently in talks to restructure the terms of the loan.

Amid the cash crunch, the company is planning to sell Great Learning and Epic for about $800 Mn-$1 Bn. 

According to a Bloomberg report, BYJU’s is in talks with the US-based private equity fund Joffre Capital to sell Epic for $400 Mn.

Meanwhile, sources told Inc42 that cofounder Byju Raveendran is in talks with the US and India-based edtech firms to sell Great Learning for about $400 Mn.

All this comes at a time when there is still no clarity on BYJU’S financial performance in FY22. After multiple delays and missed deadlines, BYJU’S last week released select numbers for its standalone business for FY22.

In a statement, it said Think and Learn Private Ltd reported an EBITDA loss of INR 2,253 Cr in FY22 as against an EBITDA loss of INR 2,406 Cr in FY21. Total income stood at INR 3,569 Cr as against INR 1,552 Cr in FY21. 

But neither did the statement mention the net loss figure for the standalone business nor did it provide any details about the consolidated financials for the year. The edtech firm’s consolidated net loss surged 1,880% to INR 4,588 Cr in FY21.

However, as per the sources, BYJU’S is in the process of filing its consolidated financials for FY22 with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in the next two weeks.

Mohan’s Attempts To Put The House In Order 

Last month, Inc42 reported that Mohan, who took over as the India CEO of BYJU’S in September this year, is looking to turn around the company’s fortunes by bringing down costs.

As part of this exercise, he ordered an immediate hiring freeze and was said to have zeroed in on senior employees and vertical heads for layoffs. The company also fired employees from sales, HR, finance and tech teams in this exercise. 

“There is a rumour going on in the Bengaluru head office that the company will now be brought down to 2015 levels when it comes to the number of employees, with more focus on junior-level positions,” a source told Inc42 earlier.

However, the company would continue to hire business development associates (BDAs) as it looks to shore up its revenue. 

Meanwhile, Mohan was also said to have ordered a pause on further expansion of BYJU’S offline tuition centres, which were started last year, amid high operational costs and a large number of refund and cancellation requests from students.

While the impact of these changes would only be visible in BYJU’S financial statements for FY24, all eyes are on the edtech’s consolidated FY22 numbers for now.