Even if you are the most “blah, i’m not the property rental guy” person, you probably still know about Housing.com. That is the kind of impact the brand has created, obviously via their ₹120 Crore marketing stunt and of course, through Rahul Yadav, their ever-controversial CEO. Economic Times though, now reports that Yadav is stepping down as CEO, for the second time in past two months, and his resignation will get accepted by the board this time.
Citing sources close to the matter, ET reports that the IIT-B dropout has decided to leave his position as the CEO, and unlike his previous stunt, his resignation will be accepted by the board this time. He however, won’t leave the company, and will be asked to stay on to oversee product development.
The source told ET,
After discussions with the board, Rahul has decided to step down. There will be a board meeting within two weeks where this will be announced. He has let individual board members know.
Housing and its CEO Rahul, have both been in the news lately, and for all the wrong reasons. While Rahul’s controversies are well documented by sensationalising media across India (nope, we didn’t cover either of them), Housing too has been under constant scrutiny, majorly for its cash burn rate on marketing campaigns, which has constantly irked up company’s investors due to not-so-good returns. Unavailability of accurate facts though, makes the entire cash-burn incident debatable.
A more recent controversy, involved Rahul Yadav tweeting a photograph of Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, sleeping in an airport lounge. The reason being cited ? Well, Mr. Sikka was perhaps tired and refused to talk to the teenager who was at the same airport. The teenager, Rahul, got angry and tweeted the photograph. That has been the level of controversies which have involved Mr. Yadav.
Housing has raised $12o Million till date in numerous funding rounds, with majority stake now with the investors. Housing counts Softbank, Falcon Edge as its investors.
As for the CEO, ET reports that Housing’s investors have been on a lookout for a new CEO, for ‘quite some time’. Recruitment agency Spencer and Stuart is leading the charge.
UPDATE 1 :
Rahul Yadav, in his usual style, has rebuffed ET’s reports via a Facebook post.
Image via : Office Chai
UPDATE 2 :
Apparently, TOI has taken down this report after Rahul openly rebuffed those claims. Looks like Mr. Yadav is staying. We are still awaiting official statement from Housing. Meanwhile, TOI : Grow up dude !!!
UPDATE 3 :
Times of India Group’s ET Tech newsroom has re-published the previously removed story, now with some confirmed e-mail leaks. However, those leaks aren’t published yet. Here’s what ET says in its latest report,
Thanks for the quick resolution. Do let me know wherever you guys need my help. Also, given my zero shareholding and not being CEO, I don’t think I need to be on the board as well
Yadav wrote in an email to the board of directors.
