US-based Better Home & Finance Holding Company has announced that it terminated founder Vishal Garg as CEO and accused him of delaying the company’s quarterly filing, sharply escalating a dispute over control of the mortgage lender. The statement comes just a day after Garg demanded that five directors resign and claimed majority shareholder support for the proposed board overhaul. Better said that every director other than Garg unanimously voted to terminate him after developing concerns about his “judgment, temperament and credibility.”The board also accused Garg of refusing to follow the company’s established shareholder-governance process and said that it would not voluntarily return control to him. Incidentally, the statement contradicts Better’s August 3 announcement that Garg had “mutually agreed” with the board to transition out of the CEO role.
When Vishal Garg fired 900 employees on a Zoom call, just days before Christmas break
In December 201, just days before Christmas, Garg made headlines for laying off 900 employees during a Zoom call. More precisely, on December 6, 2021, Garg announced that the mortgage company is laying off about 9% of its workforce during a Zoom webinar, abruptly informing the more than 900 employees on the call. “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” Garg said on the call. “Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.” He then said employees could expect an email from HR detailing benefits and severance.Garg cited market efficiency, performance and productivity as the reason behind the firings. The episode also included a leaked email in which Garg referred to employees as “dumb dolphins.” “You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS… SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME,” Garg reportedly wrote. He subsequently took a monthlong leave while Better’s board commissioned a leadership and cultural assessment, then returned as CEO in January 2022.
What Better Home & Finance Holding said on Vishal Garg’s termination
The Board of Directors (the “Board”), excluding Mr. Garg, unanimously voted to terminate Mr. Garg as Chief Executive Officer following a series of decisions and actions that raised serious concerns regarding his judgment, temperament and credibility. Together with Mr. Garg’s track record—including cumulative GAAP net losses exceeding $1.5 billion since 2022 and a stock price that had declined more than 90% under his leadership—the Board concluded that Mr. Garg was no longer fit to serve in an executive capacity at the Company.Mr. Garg himself told the Board that the Company would have been better off had the capital raised under his leadership simply been invested in U.S. Treasury securities rather than deployed under his stewardship.
Vishal Garg sends letter to shareholder asking them to get his CEO job back
To get his job back, Garg has hired the high-profile lawyer Alex Spiro, partner at Quinn Emanuel, to represent him. He has also sent a letter to the board demanding it return him as CEO. He says that he will work for $1 a year until he returns the company to profitability, and that he will transition out of the CEO role afterwards. “It’s an acknowledgment that I’ve been doing this for 10 years, but execution hasn’t been perfect,” Garg said. “I hope it gets resolved. I think the future still remains very bright for Better,” Garg wrote in the letter.