Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
snapdeal kunal bahl

While Snapdeal is facing major heat with executives departing from the company one by one, the company is now in hot waters as its employees are protesting against the founders and the recent decisions made by the company.

The employees of the company decided to write a joint letter to co-founders — Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. Written by current and former employees, a copy of the letter has also been sent to Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance and Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

The letter, reviewed by Moneycontrol, alleges that the Plan B or Snapdeal 2.0 plan is not viable and would only keep the founders in-charge at the cost of a large number of employees. It further reads:

An independent inquiry into the affairs of this company would reveal how the interests of employees and possibly shareholders were destroyed to protect the interest of two people. We saw a proud unicorn change into a troubled company. But we kept the faith and believed what you said – the employees of this organization are your “single biggest priority”.

It further says that “It [Snapdeal 2.0 or Plan B] is a poisonous plan to destroy the organisation so that you stay in charge. So many people to be impacted for the sake of just two of you.”

Snapdeal founders backed-off from the merger deal with Flipkart which took months to reach the final stage. The Delhi-based startup’s founders decided to keep running the company independently, despite tremendous efforts from its majority investor SoftBank to push for the deal.

In its efforts to work independently, the company will have to streamline its business and operations. As a part of the process, Snapdeal is expected to layoff 80% of its employees.

The letter has also been marked to the Managing Director of Axis Bank, among at least a dozen other recipients. The employees are urging the government to cancel the FreeCharge’s acquisition deal. Last month, Axis Bank announced the acquisition of Snapdeal’s mobile wallet firm Freecharge in an all cash deal for ₹385 crore.

However, Snapdeal has dismissed the claims made in the letter. A spokesperson of the company said, “the company cannot comment on baseless, unsubstantiated allegations made by unidentified sources”. The letter is written by anonymous sources, and provides no proof for the allegations it makes.

While the company’s founders are confident about Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, it appears that Snapdeal’s employees, and particularly the senior management, are skeptical about it. As many as seven senior members of the company have quit since it was announced, including its VP of Engineering, Program Management and Data Platform.

By Jeet