Consumer electronics company Oppo told the National Company Law Tribunal, NCLT, that edtech firm Byju’s owes them Rs 13 crore, as reported by Moneycontrol. Byju’s had pre-installed its app on the phones manufactured by Oppo.
The plea has been adjourned until July 3. The NCLT has called that day ‘Byju’s Day’, as around ten petitions will be heard that day. To reach a wider audience, Byju’s decided to pre-install apps on the Oppo phone, but they couldn’t pay the required amount, according to the report.
While highlighting that the edtech firm has admitted that it owes money, Oppo reportedly claimed that they have a straightforward case. Thus, it sends the edtech business to the insolvency resolution procedure.
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Oppo requested immediate instructions from the NCLT, citing the company's promoters as "absconding" and having left India. An insolvency plea was filed by Oppo against the edtech firm at the Bengaluru Bench of the NCLT in May this year.
Several other companies have filed for insolvency pleas against the edtech firm, which includes the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cogent E-Services, McGraw Hill Education, and others.
France-based Teleperformance Business Service has reportedly settled its dispute with Byju’s. This year, Teleperformance Business Service also filed an insolvency plea against the edtech firm.
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Now, Teleperformance has been asked by the NCLT to file a memo in which it says that it is withdrawing the insolvency plea. As per Teleperformance, Byju's agreed to pay the money in three installments: Rs 1.5 crore in the first payment, Rs 2 crore in the second, and Rs 2.2 crore in the third tranche.
Recently, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, MCA, refuted claims that it gave clean chit to Byju’s over financial frauds. In a statement, the MCA reportedly added, “The proceedings initiated by the MCA under the Companies Act, 2013, are still ongoing, and no final conclusion should be drawn in this matter at this stage.”
