BYJU's EGM rife with chaos, employee protests: Reports
Sources cited say the meeting was disrupted by unknown people, including employees, and some joining the virtual link in the name of investors
- Republic Business
- 2 min read
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Chaos erupted at the extraordinary general meeting conducted by the investors of embattled edtech BYJU's, with anonymous entrants attempting to disrupt the virtual proceedings as per reports.
As per the recent developments reported, the EGM was rife with multiple technical glitches, and also saw employee protests during proceedings.
As many as three registered shareholders could not be part of the meeting, as they were either not let in the virtual link or removed from the meeting forcibly.
The poll paper for the voting also contained only one business item, and there was a legal requirement for the EGM to be adjourned since the founders were not in attendance.
“This EGM is procedurally invalid, contractually in contravention of our AOA and SHA, legally on the wrong side of the Companies Act, 2013. Byju Raveendran or any other Board member will not attend this invalid EGM. This means the EGM, if it is still summoned, will not have the required quorum and cannot proceed to discuss or vote on the agenda,” the company had stated.
According to the sources cited, it took more than one hour to verify the identity of attendees, with hundreds trying to join the Zoom video-conferencing link. The roll call saw all kinds of names like Sir Michael Knight, Natalia Cruz and Kevin Pietersen.
The number of joinees went down from 170 to 37 after the names who were approved to attend were vetted. These 37 include 24 investors, 8 BYJU'S shareholders who are also its employees, as well as 5 people from the legal team.
Sources also said a phishing attack happened ahead of the meeting, wherein a random notification from an unidentified source attempted to disrupt the meeting, wrongly informing that the meeting was cancelled.
The outcome of the meeting is expected to be out a few hours after the voting count, when the meeting ends at 12.30 pm. As per the source cited in the report, votes will go to an independent scrutiniser after which a report will be sent by afternoon.