Better.com CEO suffers fall from grace as merger goes horribly wrong

Shares of mortgage lender Better.com plummeted by as much as 95 percent on its first day of trading after losing $1 billion in just over two years and facing controversy surrounding CEO Vishal Garg's past firing of 900 employees over a Zoom call.

dailymail.co.uk

Relevant topic timeline:

8/23/2023

As Better.com readies for its public debut, CEO Vishal Garg says he went through 'a lot of leadership training'

Online mortgage lender Better.com, which recently made its public debut on Nasdaq, has secured $565 million in fresh capital, including a $528 million convertible note from SoftBank affiliates, as it looks to grow its business and improve its technology to provide faster and cheaper home loans.

8/24/2023

Mortgage Company Starts Trading, Promptly Sinks

Better Home & Finance, a mortgage company that recently went public, experienced a significant drop in its share value, falling 93%.

8/24/2023

Better's shares plummet 93% in Nasdaq debut

Shares of Better Home & Finance Holding, the parent company of digital lender Better.com, plummeted 93.4% on its Nasdaq debut after merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), due to a weak mortgage market and dwindling investor interest in SPACs.

8/25/2023

Better.com CEO Who Fired 900 People On Zoom Is Struggling To Keep His Company Afloat

SoftBank-backed company Better.com, led by CEO Vishal Garg, faces financial struggles and plummeting stock prices after going public via a SPAC merger, with investors attributing the decline to Garg's brash leadership style and the company's lack of financial controls.

8/25/2023

SoftBank-backed mortgage lender Better steady after bleak debut

Shares in online mortgage lender Better Home & Finance Holding rebounded slightly after a poor debut, with the company backed by SoftBank seeing a 4.3% increase in its stock price following a merger with a blank-check company, although it still finished the day down 93.4%; CEO Vishal Garg believes the company's technology will drive long-term growth and create shareholder value when interest rates normalize.

8/27/2023

Better.com's public market debut was Miserable.com

Digital mortgage lender Better.com had a disastrous public market debut, with its stock closing at just $1.19, resulting in a market cap of only $19.14 million, compared to its initial plans to go public at a $7.7 billion valuation. Conversely, Affirm, another fintech company, saw its stock prices rise by nearly 30% after reporting better-than-expected earnings.

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Posted 8/27/2023, 3:42:09 AM

Better.com CEO suffers fall from grace as merger goes horribly wrong

dailymail.co.uk

Relevant topic timeline:

8/23/2023

As Better.com readies for its public debut, CEO Vishal Garg says he went through 'a lot of leadership training'

8/24/2023

Mortgage Company Starts Trading, Promptly Sinks

Better Home & Finance, a mortgage company that recently went public, experienced a significant drop in its share value, falling 93%.

8/24/2023

Better's shares plummet 93% in Nasdaq debut

8/25/2023

Better.com CEO Who Fired 900 People On Zoom Is Struggling To Keep His Company Afloat

8/25/2023

SoftBank-backed mortgage lender Better steady after bleak debut

8/27/2023

Better.com's public market debut was Miserable.com