Byjus to lay off 4,000-5,000 employees!

India’s largest edutech organisation Byjus has begun taking measures to revive the company. The company had gone broke and as part of the revival measures, Byjus India new CEO Arjun Mohan has decided to cut down 4,000-5,000 jobs in the firm.

It is learnt that Mohan would hold consultations with the employees and then take a final decision about it. There is information that the employee attrition will have an impact on Think and Learn, which runs Byjus, and Akash Educational Services.

Senior employee of Byjus Arjun Mohan was recently appointed as the CEO of Byjus India wing. The plans to downsize the employees will also have a bearing on the sales and marketing divisions of the company.

The organization, which is in a critical situation and even had to lose some land in its name, is trying to get financial help in a big way.

One of the company representatives said that steps to revive the company were going on and job cuts were also being done simultaneously. “The entire process will be completed in a few weeks. Measures to pay back the debts are underway and simultaneously, steps are being taken to reduce the expenditure,” he said.

Earlier this month, Byjus informed that they have decided to pay back $ 1.2 -billion dollar term loan-B (TLB) in the next six months. It has also proposed to pay back 300 million dollars to the investors in the next three months. To pool up the money, the company is planning to sell off Great Learning and US-based reading startup Epic. The company is in debts worth 1.2 billion dollars, which amounts to Rs 9,892 crore.

Last time, Byjus made a cheque of $22 million. However, since the beginning of this financial year, the company had been facing severe crisis in pooling funds both in India and abroad. In May, it could pool funds of $250 million after talks with Davidson Kempner.

In the loan taken from Davidson Kempner, Byjus had technical default. So, Byjus’ Byju Ravindran began focusing on gathering funds to have a hold on Akash Educational Services. However, in an inevitable situation, Akash shares were mortgaged to Davidson Kempner.

Byjus also asked for financial help from Manipal Group Chairman Ranjan Pai after he showed interest in buying Byju’s owned Akash. Byju Ravindran has 30% stake in Akash.

According to a report in Money Control, Ranjan Pai had agreed to buy Ravindran’s shares in Akash.