Vishal Garg, the founder and former CEO of Better Home & Finance who was ousted from the top job in early August, is declaring victory in his effort to wrest back control of the company, with his shareholder group saying it has secured written consents representing more than 51 percent of Better’s voting power.
But the claimed majority had not yet appeared in a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing as of Wednesday morning, leaving the final tally publicly unverified.
The Garg Group said Wednesday that it had obtained enough support to move forward with reconstituting Better’s board, less than two months after Garg was removed as CEO. Garg had secured enough shareholder support to remove five directors, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
“This historic victory serves the best interests of every Better shareholder,” Garg attorney Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan said Wednesday. “No public CEO has ever been pushed out, litigated the issue and won his way back in two months. Vishal Garg has been vindicated.”
The claim comes less than a week after Better was still publicly fighting Garg’s effort and disputing his support numbers.
On Sept. 22, Better’s special committee disputed Garg’s claim that he had secured consents representing more than 46 percent of the company’s voting power, saying he had not obtained “anywhere near” that level of support and pointing to his failed attempt in August to demonstrate majority backing. The company was still urging shareholders to reject Garg’s campaign and return consent-revocation cards.
Two days later, Better announced an investigation into allegations that Garg had sought to offer company interests or benefits to former employees who are shareholders in return for consents supporting his effort to replace the board. Better said the allegations, if true, could raise fiduciary-duty concerns. Garg has disputed Better’s broader allegations throughout the board fight.
As of Sept. 24, Better was still urging shareholders who had previously supported Garg to revoke their green consent cards.
Better declined Inman’s request for comment Wednesday on Garg’s claim of victory.
Since at least mid-August, Garg has sought to remove interim CEO Daniel Lewis and directors Harit Talwar, Bhaskar Menon, Arnaud Massenet and Prabhu Narasimhan from Better’s eight-member board.
Wednesday’s claim marks the second time Garg’s camp has said it crossed the majority threshold. Court filings revealed that an August effort fell short after Garg’s side relied on what it later described as an administrative error in calculating voting power.
Garg subsequently launched a formal consent solicitation seeking shareholder approval to remove the five directors and reconstitute the board.
