Byju’s plans to cut more jobs to slash costs: Report

Edtech major Byju's plans to slash more jobs as another cost cutting measure to streamline operations, reported Economic Times.

The latest round of job cuts will affect the contractual staff across on-gound sales team, according to the report. It comes at a time when Byju's has filed a lawsuit against the lenders of its $1.2 billion term loan B, which it raised in the US in November 2021. The company has also said that it will not be making any further interest payments until the case is resolved.

“Byju’s has taken the decisive action to file a complaint in the New York Supreme Court to challenge acceleration of the US$ 1.2 billion Term Loan B (TLB) and to disqualify Redwood Capital Management, who contrary to the terms of TLB, purchased a significant portion of the loan while primarily trading in distressed debt," the company said in a statement.

It said that it had taken these measures following a series of 'predatory tactics' by the lenders, led by Redwood. These tactics, according to Byju's, included threatening to seize the company's assets and demanding that it make early repayments on the loan.

Byju’s will remain open to discussions with TLB lenders and “is ready, willing and able to continue making payments under the TLB if the lenders withdraw their ill-conceived actions and honour the terms of the agreement," the company said.

Earlier, this year the company had laid off nearly 1,500 employees, in another round of layoffs according to media reports.

Byju’s has fired around 1,500 employees citing cost optimization and outsourcing of operations, four people familiar with the matter, told Mint.

Byju’s founder and chief executive officer Byju Raveendran in October had assured employees that no further layoffs beyond the planned 2,500 staff.

In May, BlackRock, which holds one per cent stake in the company,  had written down the edtech major Byju's valuation to $8.29 billion.