Byju Raveendran, founding father of troubled edtech group Byju’s, admitted Thursday afternoon that he made mistakes, mistimed the market, overestimated growth potential and that his startup, once valued at $22 billion, is now worth “zero.”

Speaking to a gaggle of journalists, Raveendran said the corporate’s aggressive acquisition of over two dozen startups to expand into recent markets turned disastrous when funding dried up in 2022. Byju’s had planned to go public in early 2022, and several other investment bankers had provided the corporate’s valuation. as much as $50 billion, TechCrunch previously reported.

He alleged that most of the greater than 100 investors encouraged him to proceed aggressive expansion into as many as 40 markets. But he added that these very investors chickened out when global markets collapsed after Russia invaded Ukraine, sending the enterprise capital market right into a downward spiral.

Raveendran said lots of its investors “flighted” and the departure of three key backers – Prosus Ventures, Peak XV and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative – from the corporate’s board last 12 months prevented the startup from raising additional funds.

Representatives of the three corporations and auditor Deloitte left the startup’s management board last 12 months, citing management issues.

Byju’s has since entered bankruptcy proceedings, and Raveendran, who now not controls the corporate, said: “It’s worth zero. What valuation are you talking about? It’s worth zero.”

Byju’s, once India’s Most worthy startup, counts BlackRock, UBS, Lightspeed, QIA, Bond, Silver Lake, Sofina, Verlinvest, Tencent, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Owl Ventures and the World Bank’s IFC amongst its backers. More than $5 billion has been raised up to now.

Raveendran said he hopes his startup will make a comeback. “I have nothing to lose. I come from a small village. I invested everything I had in the startup.”

Days after 159 people accepted Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s offer of six months of severance pay for employees who wanted to leave, the corporate late October 16 made a brand new offer of nine months of severance pay to anyone who would leave immediately. Employees had 4 hours to determine whether or not they wanted to join the contract.

In a Slack message seen by TechCrunch, Mullenweg wrote that those that accept the offer will lose access not only to Automattic but additionally to WordPress.org. This effectively means that folks leaving won’t give you the chance to contribute to the open source project – not less than under their existing ID. This would also mean that they’d be effectively banned from the WordPress community. The transaction was previously announced by, amongst others, 404 Media.

In addition to being the CEO of Automattic, Mullenweg also owns and controls the open source website WordPress.org.

Mullenweg gave him 4 hours’ notice and told him that those that wanted to accept the offer should send him a non-public message: “I am resigning and would like to take advantage of the 9-month buyout offer.”

“You don’t have to give any reason or anything. I will reply, “Thank you.” Automattic will accept your resignation, you can keep your office belongings and work on your laptop. You will lose access to Automattic and Worg,” Mullenweg said.

He said, “I think some people were sad that they missed the last window,” and that is why he introduced a brand new, short window.

Automattic didn’t comment on this story by press time. It is unclear whether any of the employees took advantage of the brand new offer. According to the corporate’s website, employment currently totals 1,731 people; a couple of hours ago it was 1732.

The WordPress co-founder’s first offer was addressed to individuals who didn’t agree with his views on Automattic’s fight against the hosting provider WP Engine. The first group of people to leave Automattic included several of the corporate’s top employees, including the pinnacle of WordPress.com (Automtic’s business WordPress hosting arm), Daniel Bachhuberhead of programs and co-creator of the experience Naoko Takanochief AI architect, Daniel Walmsleyand Executive Director of WordPress.org Joseph Haden Chomphosa.

The battle began almost a month ago when Mullenweg called WP Engine the “cancer of WordPress” and accused the independent company of not contributing enough to the WordPress open source project. Over the past few weeks, the fight has included stop-and-desist letters, Automattic accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement, a lawsuit filed by WP Engine, and WordPress.org blocking WP Engine’s access and seizing the plugin it maintains.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Automattic was preparing to defend its trademarks by retaining “nice and not-so-nice” lawyers, according to an internal post published earlier this yr by the corporate’s then-chief legal officer.

Federal authorities announced the arrest of a man in Alabama on Thursday, accusing him of involvement in the hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account earlier this 12 months.

Eric Council Jr. was charged in reference to the January 9 hack of SEC , in response to the press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

According to the indictment against the Councilworked with other anonymous co-conspirators to perform a SIM swap on the phone account of a person who had access to SEC X’s account, identified only as “CL.” Authorities alleged that the Council received payments for SIM swaps just like the one which led to the SEC X account hack.

On January 9, the co-conspirator sent the Board instructions on methods to replace the SIM card in the phone of a person with access to X’s SEC account, in addition to that individual’s personal information. Council then went to an AT&T store with a fake CL ID card that he designed and printed himself and claimed to be an FBI agent who had broken his phone and needed a brand new SIM card.

Council bought a brand new iPhone to switch the SIM card, then used the phone to acquire a reset code for the @SECGov account on . At that time, Council returned the iPhone for money in Birmingham, Alabama, the indictment alleges.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Council conducted several Google searches, including “SECGOV hack,” “SIM swapping in Telegram,” “how can I be sure if the FBI is investigating” and “What are the signs you’re under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI, even if they have not contacted you” and “what are the signs that the FBI is after you.”

Council was charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and device fraud.