Investors oust Raveendran; Byju's calls decision invalid

Byju's investors have fired CEO and founder Byju Raveendran via shareholder vote in the emergency general meeting held on Friday, reported Moneycontrol. As per the report shareholders of over 60% of the cap table voted in favor of resolutions

"At today’s Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders unanimously passed all resolutions put forward for vote. These included a request for the resolution of the outstanding governance, financial mismanagement and compliance issues at BYJU’s; the reconstitution of the Board of Directors, so that it is no longer controlled by the founders of T&L; and a change in leadership of the Company," a spokesperson from Prosus, the investors that led the EGM told Moneycontrol.

As per the report, they added that as shareholders and significant investors, they are confident about the validity of the EGM meeting and its decisive outcome

Byju's statement

Meanwhile, Byju's in a statement has emphasized on Karnataka High Court's interim relief stating that decisions made during EGM would not be given effect until the next hearing. The edtech has further said that passing of such unenforceble resolutions challenges the rule of law at worst.

"BYJU'S firmly declares that the resolutions passed during the recently concluded Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) — attended by a small cohort of select shareholders — are invalid and ineffective. The passing of the unenforceable resolutions challenges the rule of law at worst," the company said.

Only 20% of shareholders attended and the resolutions were voted up without the valid constitution of a quorum, the statement added.

Emergency General Meeting

An extraordinary general meeting called by Byju’s investors to oust the company’s chief executive officer and founder Byju Raveendran was held on Friday. The EGM reportedly faced many disruptions, as unknown people tried to allegedly sabotage the meeting by various means including a Phishing attack.

As per Moneycontrol, it took over an hour to complete the roll call and verify attendees as hundreds of individuals attempted to join the Zoom video-conferencing link of the EGM with all kinds of names like Sir Michael Knight, Natalia Cruz, Kevin Pietersen. Unidentified people also joined the meeting impersonating the company’s investors.

Also Read: Byju's investors file oppression, mismanagement suit against co-founder Raveendran at NCLT

In the meet the investors voted on resolutions to overhaul the embattled education platform's leadership, reconstitute the board and start a forensic probe into alleged governance breaches.

Karnataka HC's order

The Karnataka High Court, earlier, barred enforcing any of the decisions taken in the EGM till the next date of hearing, which is March 13. The order came earlier this week on a petition filed by the company against its investors.