Better’s SPAC partner recommits to deal after CEO’s sidelining

Aurora Acquisition, the special purpose acquisition company slated to merge with digital lender Better, reconfirmed plans to move ahead with the deal following a controversy involving the fintech’s now-sidelined leader, Vishal Garg.

“Aurora remains confident in Better and the proposed transaction,” the company said in a Dec. 27 Securities and Exchange Commission filing that noted the CEO’s leave status.

An internal email from the company’s board of directors announced Garg was ”taking time off effective immediately” on Dec. 10, according to a report from Vice. The move followed critical comments Garg made about some of the 900 employees who were abruptly laid off via a Zoom call. The CEO had claimed “at least 250” of those let go had been logging in more hours than they’d actually worked.

Garg apologized in an email to employees after the layoffs and promised the company would be taking steps to be “very transparent and aligned as a company on the goals for 2022, the metrics that matter most, and how … to … work together … and achieve our mission.”

Previously, Garg faced allegations he created a hostile work environment by frequently disparaging employees, according to a Forbes article published late last year.

“Garg is taking a break to reflect and refocus” but “will remain as CEO,” Aurora said in the 8-K SEC filing. Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan “will help oversee the leadership team and continue his duties” in the interim, the filing confirmed.

Garg acknowledged in an interview with National Mortgage News earlier this year that he does “push really hard” when it comes to workers’ performance and his own, calling the company's growth targets “not for the faint of heart.”

The layoffs came a day after the revision of the company’s merger terms to provide it with immediate infusion of capital that went directly to its balance sheet.

In a press release about that infusion, Garg said that the company planned on leveraging business-to-business loan channels as a means of achieving “great defensibility in a tougher mortgage market.”