Byju's layoff: Ed-tech asks for voluntary resignations following performance review

Amid a challenging operational landscape, edtech company Byju's has initiated another series of workforce reductions via a performance evaluation process.

According to reports, over 400 employees from the mentoring and product expert division, who were placed under a performance review in July, were asked to resign on August 17.

Byju's has officially acknowledged its decision to release additional staff members through a routine performance assessment. However, the company contested the figures, asserting that only around 100 employees were impacted.

Byju's layoff history

In a previous instance this year, Byju's reportedly released 900-1,000 employees in a further round of layoffs. Company insiders indicated that this action aligned with the "optimization" strategy unveiled last year, involving the elimination of 2,500 positions. Byju's also executed layoffs, affecting roughly 600 employees, across its affiliated entities, WhiteHat Jr and Toppr, citing the aim to improve cost effectiveness.

BYJU'S sends legal notice to Aakash founders demanding share transfer

These developments come at a time when Byju's has sent a legal notice to founders of Aakash Educational Services following their alleged resistance to complete a share swap that was unconditionally agreed as part of the sale of Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL), sources said.

In 2021, BYJU'S acquired 33-year-old brick-and-mortar coaching centre AESL for nearly USD 940 million in a cash and stock deal. Post deal, TLPL owned 43 per cent while its founder Byju Raveendran another 27 per cent. Founder Chaudhry's family maintains about 18 per cent in AESL and Blackstone the remaining 12 per cent.

The deal envisaged AESL merging with TLPL as it was more tax efficient for the seller Chaudhrys.

However, due to delays in the proposed merger by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), TLPL has invoked the unconditional fallback agreement and issued a notice to Chaudhrys, requesting the execution of the swap deal.