Byju Raveendran, the founder and CEO of the edtech company Byju’s, dismissed rumours of his dismissal from the company, asserting that such speculations were greatly exaggerated, and he continues to lead the organisation. In an email addressed to employees obtained by the news agency IANS on Saturday, Raveendran affirmed that the management remains unaltered, the Board remains unchanged, and the rights issue has “seen an overwhelming response.”
The response from the CEO came a day after significant shareholders in Byju’s, such as Prosus NV and Peak XV Partners, voted to remove him as CEO during the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), citing that all proposed resolutions were unanimously approved by stakeholders.
In the email to staff, Raveendran reassured that operations at the company continue without interruption, describing it as “business as usual.”
“Just as you can’t change the rules of a game midway without agreement from all players, we can’t alter how our company is run without following these strict guidelines. At the EGM, a lot of these essential rules were violated. This means that whatever was decided in that meeting does not count because it didn’t stick to the established rules,” he wrote, according to the report.
The founder asserted that the EGM was convened without adhering to the proper procedure outlined by the law and the Company’s Articles of Association. “Only 35 out of 170 shareholders (representing around 45 per cent of shareholding) voted in favour of the resolution. That in itself shows the very limited support that this irrelevant meeting received,” said the CEO.
Moreover, he mentioned that the Karnataka High Court had provided interim relief, “clearly stating that any decisions made during the meeting would not be given effect until resolution.” Despite this unwarranted turmoil, he emphasised that the management remained entirely focused on the company’s operations.
The EGM was called by certain investors to remove Byju Raveendran from the company, which is encountering regulatory challenges amid financial constraints. On Wednesday, the Karnataka High Court ruled that any resolutions passed during the EGM would be suspended until the final hearing and disposition of the petition on March 13, filed by Think & Learn Private Ltd, the parent company of Byju’s.
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