According to several sources familiar with the developments in Housing.com, the real estate portal is planning to lay off nearly 600 employees in the next three months. According to a report from economictimes.indiatimes.com, the decision was in line with the Board's decision to focus on core technology and product as well as lower its losses and other unnecessary expenditures.
A top executive was quoted as saying, "Housing is being completely restructured and performance for each employee across departments is being (scrutinized)." The executive added, "While some people have been asked to leave because businesses are being shut down, others because of underperformance and in some cases due to overstaffing."
The company is now focusing on revenue generation and building an advertising business, at the same time shutting down its commercial properties, short stay and land businesses. The focus would also be on larger cities and operations would cease in smaller ones.
Housing.com, according to a report on inc42.com, is one of the first real estate portals that utilized an intuitive user interface and verifiable listings module. The company has managed to raise about US$120 million from investors and has an overall net worth of $234 million.
One of the major controversies that beset the company was the ongoing feud between erstwhile CEO Rahul Yadav and the new group of investors headed by Softbank of Japan. In a report from realtytoday.com, Yadav had a series of run-ins with the new Board of Directors of Housing.com, including conflict with investor's employees, insults hurled at the intelligence of the Board and the threat of distributing his 4.57% shareholdings to employees of the company.
Just last month, the board had unceremoniously removed the maverick CEO. In a statement, "The board believed that his behavior is not befitting of a CEO and is detrimental to the company."
