Better.com CEO Vishal Garg who fired 900 workers in infamous Zoom call sees stock crash

Shares of Better.com — whose CEO announced two years ago that he fired 900 employers over a brazen Zoom call — fell as much as 95 percent on its first day of trading, suffering spectacular loss of staggering revenue. $1 billion in just over two years.

Just hours after its public debut Thursday, mortgage lender Better.com experienced a major drop in its share prices following a tumultuous period that included CEO Vishal Garg’s abrupt layoff of hundreds of employees via Zoom.

Shares plummeted immediately on the opening bell, falling so fast that trading was halted four times in the first 30 minutes. By Friday morning, the value of the shares of Better Home & Finance, or Better.com, had plummeted by more than 95 percent.

Given his optimism earlier in the day, it’s likely that Garg didn’t anticipate his company’s stock would spontaneously plummet so dramatically.

“This is a time to celebrate,” he announced, after completing the merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp.

“We are proud to have taken a huge step in expanding our capacity to innovate the homeownership process by becoming a publicly traded company,” he said, according to Fortune.

After the merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp. the combined entity is now known as Better Home & Finance Holding Company.

This deal provides Better.com with approximately $565 million in fresh capital, including a $528 million convertible bond from SoftBank subsidiaries and additional equity from NaMa Capital, an investment firm associated with Aurora.

Garg has reportedly personally vouched for any losses SoftBank might incur if it chooses to sell the debt. The terms of the deal could potentially force Garg to sell its Better stock, potentially impacting the stock price Technical crunch.

However, despite the capital injection, Better.com faces ongoing financial challenges.

The company reported a net loss of $89.9 million in the first quarter and underwent significant headcount reductions, laying off approximately 91 percent of its workforce over an 18-month period.

While the startup has managed to trim its loss from its net loss of $327.7 million at the start of 2022, it remains in trouble due to high mortgage rates and a slowdown in the national housing market.

In addition, since December 2021, the company’s reputation has suffered significant damage.

The transition from a private entity to a public entity is particularly difficult due to Better.com’s mishandled layoffs, allegations of assault against employees, admitted financial misconduct, notable departures of directors, and other claims.

From the company’s point of view, the reverse merger with Aurora SPAC — a deal that had been worked on for more than two years — was basically a life-saving move.

Before the merger, the CEO said he worked “really, very hard” to be “more empathetic” and treat people with “kindness.”

“So I’ve worked really, really hard to change the way I come to the team every day, and to be more empathetic and treat them with the same level of kindness that I showed our customers,” Garg shared. TechCrunch.

“I think I was very mission oriented and customer focused, and really, really focused on what it took to drive growth,” Garg added.

Better.com’s disastrous debut on the Nasdaq comes after dramatic turns at the digital mortgage company since December 2021, when CEO Vishal Garg brutally laid off 900 employees on a Zoom call.

He then accused them of being so “lazy” that they actually “stalled” from customers. He charged at least 50 of the fired executives with corporate theft for allegedly overstating their work hours, Fortune reported at the time.

Vishal Garg laid off about nine percent of Better.com’s workforce during the brutal call just three weeks before Christmas, including the entire diversity, equality and inclusion team, which deals with complaints of racism and sexism in the workplace.

Garg said bluntly, “This isn’t news you want to hear… If you join, you’ll be part of the unfortunate group that gets fired. Your employment here will be terminated with immediate effect.”

The 43-year-old said the “market has changed,” meaning drastic cuts to the company’s $7 billion workforce were needed to avoid disaster.

An angry employee filmed the phone call and shared it online, complete with a moment where they cursed the CEO when he confirmed the mass “layoff” of employees at the Manhattan-headquartered mortgage lender.

The unknown male worker could be heard saying, “F**k you dude.” Are you joking?’

Garg, who was accused by the workers of being “irregular,” later elaborated on a scathing blog post in which he slammed his staff for “posting” out of laziness.

The father-of-three wrote on professional network Blind: “Do you know that at least 250 of the laid off people worked an average of 2 hours a day, while they were more than 8 hours a day in the payroll system?”

“They stole from you and from our customers who pay the bills who pay our bills. Get an education,” he added.

Speaking to Fortune, Garg — who once threatened to wall-fasten a former business associate and burn him alive, according to court documents — confirmed he made the comments under the anonymous username “uneducated,” but declined to back down.

“I think they could have been worded differently, but frankly the sentiment is there,” he said.

In January 2022, it was announced that the CEO would resume his “full-time duties” after taking “time off to reflect on his leadership” in December.

In a letter sent to employees at the time, he announced that he would return after thinking long and hard about “the leader I wanted to be.”

“I understand how difficult the past few weeks have been. I am deeply sorry for the fear, distraction and embarrassment my actions have caused,” he wrote in the email.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where we stand as a company and what type of leadership Better needs…and the leader I want to be.”