Better.com founder Vishal Garg says he has finally secured enough shareholder votes to oust the board members who pushed him out — potentially handing him control of the embattled mortgage lender less than two months after his stunning defenestration.
Garg’s investor group announced Wednesday that shareholders representing more than 51% of Better’s voting power have signed written consents to remove interim CEO Daniel Lewis and four other directors.
If Better formally accepts the votes as valid, Garg’s group would have enough shareholder support to reshape the board — effectively turning the tables on the directors who fired him as CEO on Aug. 3.
But Garg, who first generated headlines five years ago when he let go around 900 of his employees over a Zoom call, in does not plan to reclaim his old job.
Instead, his group said it plans to install an outside interim CEO with mortgage-industry expertise while Garg becomes Better’s head of product, platform and innovation.
“This is a resounding victory for Better’s shareholders, customers and employees, who all participated in organizing the resistance to the coup led by Daniel Lewis and the incumbent board,” Garg said in announcing the vote.
The vote “serves the best interests of every Better shareholder,” said Garg attorney Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel.
“No public CEO has ever been pushed out, litigated the issue, and won his way back in two months. Vishal Garg has been vindicated,” he added.
Better is a New York-based, publicly traded digital mortgage lender the market value of which has plunged to roughly $200 million to $230 million from a $7.7 billion valuation when its SPAC deal was announced in 2021.
The latest development would mark a dramatic reversal in a bitter boardroom war that erupted after Garg nominated Lewis — an investor who had become a close confidant — to Better’s board on July 27.
Just one week later, the board fired Garg after roughly 11 years as CEO and installed Lewis as interim chief.
The breakup was particularly striking because Lewis had spent months showering Garg with praise in private text messages.
“I actually love you,” Lewis wrote Garg in March.
Lewis also called Garg “by far the most compelling CEO in my public portfolio” and told him: “I find you at a level that is in the 0.01%. I know what I see.”
Even hours after Garg’s ouster, Lewis wrote him shortly a bit midnight on Aug. 4: “You are the last person I am texting tonight — you are on my mind. You are in my heart, whether you believe it or not.”
Less than two minutes later, Lewis wrote in all caps: “REMOVING VISHAL GARG IS NOT WINNING. HE IS OUR FOUNDER.”
Lewis previously told The Post that he had been an outside shareholder trying to “coach” Garg when he sent the effusive messages.
He said his view changed after getting an inside look at Better and discovering what he described as “corporate waste,” “related-party dealings” and “toxicity and dysfunction.”
“All the love died when the diligence began,” Lewis said.
Better initially portrayed Garg’s departure as an amicable transition, saying on Aug. 3 that he had stepped down and that the two sides had “mutually agreed” it was time for new leadership.
The company later said every director other than Garg had voted to fire him over concerns about his “judgment, temperament and credibility.”
Garg responded by launching a shareholder rebellion aimed at removing Lewis and directors Harit Talwar, Bhaskar Menon, Arnaud Massenet and Prabhu Narsimhan.
That campaign quickly became messy.
Garg initially claimed shareholders backing him represented a majority of Better’s voting power, but his lawyers later acknowledged that the original bloc controlled only a little more than 45%.
Garg said the mistake resulted from a voting-power schedule prepared by Better’s own in-house securities counsel that included convertible options that could not actually be voted.
Better subsequently sued Garg in Manhattan federal court, accusing him of federal securities-law violations tied to the shareholder campaign, including allegedly misleading statements about his support and improper coordination with other investors.
Garg denied wrongdoing and accused Better of playing “gotcha,” arguing that some directors had themselves asked him to demonstrate shareholder opposition to the new leadership.
The Post has sought comment from Better.
