Online ticket booking company BookMyShow has laid off or furloughed 270 employees, making it the latest entrant in a list of well-funded consumer internet companies to have fired workers in the wake of the economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company has been forced to downsize due to the “unfavourable environment,” said Ashish Hemrajani, chief executive of BookMyShow, in an email to employees that was also posted on its website.
“Today, we are at the stage where I have to share with you, the uncomfortable, unfortunate yet inevitable downsizing exercise that we have to take due to the unfavourable environment…,” Hemrajani said in the email.
Out of 1,450 employees at BookMyShow in India and globally, about 270 employees across various functions and teams will be impacted through this exercise, he added.
“This includes those who will be put on furloughs, along with those who we will have to part ways with, at least, as of now,” he said.
The company, which was valued at about $800 million during its last funding round in 2018 and which counts the likes of SAIF Partners, TPG Growth and Accel Partners among its list of investors, did not provide a breakup of the number of employees who had been fired, and those put on furlough.
BookMyShow joins the likes of home-grown ride-hailing major Ola, hospitality chain Oyo Hotels & Homes, food delivery majors Zomato and Swiggy, and B2B ecommerce company Udaan — among the most high-profile consumer internet companies to have raised millions of dollars in funding — to slash employee numbers.
Hemrajani, who cofounded BookMyShow in 1999, said employees that have been laid off will be provided severance pay of two months’ salary irrespective of their tenure or as per notice period, whichever is higher. They will also receive medical insurance cover, along with their nominated family members, until September 30.
Those furloughed will continue to remain employed with BookMyShow and will be eligible for all medical insurance, gratuity and other benefits as per their employment standards, he said.
“The company has cut all other expenses and renegotiated with vendors, partners and landlords and after exhausting all other cost-saving measures, we have taken this decision as a last resort,” Hemrajani said in the email.
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