Better.com Allegedly A Good Deal Worse Than It Told SPAC Investors

{"id":"ci02a30c5b700026fe","isDetailPage":true,"objectType":"ContentArticle","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2022-06-08T20:23:11Z","path":"/2022/06/ex-better-ex-alleges-company-misled-spac-investors","publicationTimestamp":"2022-06-08T20:23:11Z","title":"Better.com Allegedly A Good Deal Worse Than It Told SPAC Investors","viewProperties":{"viewMeta":{"suppressContentRecommendations":false,"showLimitedSiteFooter":false,"disableSiteHeader":false,"disableSiteFooter":false,"suppressDisplayAds":false},"analyticsModel":{"title":"Better.com Allegedly A Good Deal Worse Than It Told SPAC Investors","exclusiveContentType":"free","sanitizedTitle":"Bettercom Allegedly A Good Deal Worse Than It Told SPAC Investors","pageType":"Article Page","mavenPageType":"article","sectionPath":"News","parentSectionName":"News","authorName":"Jon Shazar","author":"tm-ci023cf8a7000927dc","videoAuthorName":"","videoTitle":"","publicationQuarter":"2022Q2","trackedRichTermNames":"","originalPublishDate":"2022-06-08","trackedExtendedAttributes":""}},"commentsEnabled":true,"dek":"And Vishal Garg is allegedly every bit the peach you’d have guessed from that Zoom firing.","disqusId":"741051ef-e5a1-11ec-b73c-06157be5b057","isCanvas":true,"primaryImage":{"isReadonlyContent":false,"title":"vishal garg","attribution":{"sourceName":"Scott Rosenthal, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons"},"format":"jpg","bytes":72933,"primaryPhotoId":"ci02a33c11c000269e","createdTimestamp":"2022-06-08T20:20:44Z","primaryContentSiteId":"cs02394295300027a8","height":535,"cloudinaryVersionId":1654719643,"publicId":"MTkwMDYxNjU1Njc2MTY3ODM4","objectType":"ContentPhoto","width":807,"hasFaces":true,"createdPrincipalId":"up023c94b9f000250a","id":"ci02a33c11c000269e","primarySiteId":"cs02394295300027a8"},"primaryImageId":"ci02a33c11c000269e","primarySectionIds":["ci023cf8a6300825f5"],"sectionIds":[["ci023cf8a6300825f5"]],"slug":"ex-better-ex-alleges-company-misled-spac-investors","teaser":"And Vishal Garg is allegedly every bit the peach you’d have guessed from that Zoom firing.","hasGallery":false,"associatedRichTerms":[{"id":"ci0272b3fb200024be","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2020-10-27T20:29:35Z","path":"/tag/retaliation","publicationTimestamp":"2020-10-27T20:29:35Z","title":"Retaliation","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"221ff9d2-1893-11eb-aca1-067767174fe3","promoTitle":"Retaliation","slug":"retaliation"},{"id":"ci02a33c1850002519","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2022-06-08T20:22:26Z","path":"/tag/sarah-pierce","publicationTimestamp":"2022-06-08T20:22:26Z","title":"Sarah Pierce","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"b7dba1d5-e768-11ec-a15f-06c586fb15f3","promoTitle":"Sarah Pierce","slug":"sarah-pierce"},{"id":"ci029426ac90002594","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2021-12-07T18:56:06Z","path":"/tag/vishal-garg","publicationTimestamp":"2021-12-07T18:56:06Z","title":"Vishal Garg","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"56ecd30c-578f-11ec-9c20-025e08e6215d","promoTitle":"Vishal Garg","slug":"vishal-garg"},{"id":"ci023cf8af300627dc","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:53:50Z","path":"/tag/litigation","publicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:52:56Z","title":"litigation","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"66badfe6-1826-11e9-b99f-025f192f501e","slug":"litigation"},{"id":"ci023cf8a9200325f5","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:55:54Z","path":"/tag/firings","publicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:49:51Z","title":"firings","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"2d819f39-1826-11e9-97c4-02547ef6f3f6","slug":"firings"},{"id":"ci029426abd0002680","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2021-12-07T18:55:55Z","path":"/tag/better-com","publicationTimestamp":"2021-12-07T18:55:55Z","title":"Better.com","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"4f4831af-578f-11ec-a4c2-0691d8236111","promoTitle":"Better.com","slug":"better-com"},{"id":"ci023cf8a9200527dc","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:48:28Z","path":"/tag/fraud","publicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:52:11Z","title":"fraud","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"2d982c1d-1826-11e9-b998-025f192f501e","slug":"fraud"},{"id":"ci026d2bd3c000270f","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2020-08-21T17:13:29Z","path":"/tag/spacs","publicationTimestamp":"2020-08-21T17:13:29Z","title":"SPACs","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"a38efa95-e3d1-11ea-acdf-0611aae1a543","promoTitle":"SPACs","slug":"spacs"},{"id":"ci023cf8a6300825f5","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:55:04Z","path":"/news","publicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:51:50Z","title":"News","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"11af1129-1826-11e9-97c3-02547ef6f3f6","slug":"news"},{"id":"ci023cf8a5300127dc","objectType":"ContentRichTerm","originalPublicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:52:13Z","path":"/tag/law","publicationTimestamp":"2019-01-14T17:55:14Z","title":"law","commentsEnabled":true,"disqusId":"078b2089-1826-11e9-b993-025f192f501e","slug":"law"}]}

• Home
• News

Better.com Allegedly A Good Deal Worse Than It Told SPAC InvestorsAnd Vishal Garg is allegedly every bit the peach you’d have guessed from that Zoom firing.

• Author:Jon Shazar
• Publish date:Jun 8, 2022

Scott Rosenthal, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

And Vishal Garg is allegedly every bit the peach you’d have guessed from that Zoom firing.

Unlike nearly 1,000 of her former colleagues, Sarah Pierce didn’t get canned by mortgage lender Better.com via mass Zoom call just before Christmas. Nor was she among those who found out they were unemployed via unexplained severance check three months later, because she had been fired the month before. And unlike those let go for “stealing” from the company by being lazy or because its rosy projections for itself weren’t panning out, Pierce says she got the heave-ho for gently suggesting that Better.com and CEO Vishal Garg not issue those projections simply to save its SPAC deal, because they were untrue.

The company lost $304 million last year, according to company filings. Last winter, Mr. Garg allegedly told the company’s board and investors that the company would become profitable again by the end of the first quarter in 2022, according to the lawsuit. Ms. Pierce said her operations team, in partnership with the company’s finance department, had presented internal projections to Mr. Garg that showed the company couldn’t expect to break even until at least the second half of this year…. Ms. Pierce also alleges in the suit that the company had overstated the strength of its brand in financial filings relating to its potential merger.

Of course, no wrongful termination lawsuit worth its salt is complete without the airing of tangentially-related dirty laundry, especially with an antagonist as, let’s say colorful, as Garg, and Pierce’s doesn’t disappoint.

He allegedly replaced one of the words in the acronym for the accounting phrase, GAAP, or “generally accepted accounting principles” with a profanity. He told other executives at Better.com that interest rates would stay low because President Biden would contract Covid-19 and die, according to the suit. Another former Better.com executive said they also remembered the GAAP comments and Mr. Garg’s expectations that unforeseen events would keep rates low…. Mr. Garg allegedly repeatedly defied advice from other executives regarding the mass Zoom layoff in December, leading the company to likely violate the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employees receive 60 days notice in advance of mass layoffs, the suit said.

Better.com Misled Investors Ahead of Stalled SPAC Deal, Former Executive Alleges [WSJ]

For more of the latest in litigation, regulation, deals and financial services trends, sign up for Finance Docket, a partnership between Breaking Media publications Above the Law and Dealbreaker.

Tagsterms:RetaliationSarah PierceVishal GarglitigationfiringsBetter.comfraudSPACslawBy Jon Shazar

NewsProsecutors Couldn’t Indict SPACs As A Concept, So They Indicted Trevor Milton Instead

It’s not just a short-seller throwing around allegations of an ocean of lies emanating from the Nikola founder anymore.

NewsPresident Who Didn’t Care Much For Rules As President (Allegedly) Doesn’t Care Much For Them As SPAC Impresario

The Securities and Exchange Commission, on the other hand….

NewsTrump SPAC Player Confirms It Broke All The Rules, Wants His Money Anyway

In another world, Donald Trump would not be able to help admiring Brian Shevland, quite frankly.

NewsBetter.com Continues To Innovate Not Better Ways To Fire People

We suppose an unexpected severance check is better than a mass Zoom call, but it’s a close-run thing.

Hedge FundsHedge Fund Exec Knocked Up Employee, Allegedly Took Her On A Nice Vacation On The Company’s Dime, Still Wants Huge Severance Package

And there’s also more about his package.

NewsOzy Happy To Tell Other Investors About Goldman Call. Some Of It, Anyway.

Funnily, it seems COO Samir Rao’s method acting didn’t come up.

NewsLawsuits Against SPACs Have Shocking Only Tripled

Given the roughly 150 SPAC merger deals over the last 20 months, we figure there should be roughly 150 of them.

NewsPay No Attention To How Much SPACs Are Padding Law Firms’ Bottom Lines

This is a matter of principle, they say without trace of irony.

• Privacy Policy
• Send Tips
• About
• Advertising
• Newsletter
• RSS

© 2022 Breaking Media Inc.