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CommonFloor lays off employees not accommodated in Quikr

CommonFloor is vacating its office space and will be moving to Quikr premises.CommonFloor is vacating its office space and will be moving to Quikr premises.

Bengaluru: CommonFloor, the online real estate portal has laid off at least 100 of its employees who were unable to find suitable roles at Quikr India Pvt Ltd.

The Bengaluru-based real estate listings portal which was acquired by Quikr in January 2016 has been downsizing its team after the news of the acquisition was made public, according to two people familiar with the developments.

Mint could not confirm the exact number of employees who have been asked to leave the company.

Online listings company Quikr had acquired CommonFloor for approximately $120 million in a distress sale orchestrated by New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management-an investor in both companies.

The latest batch of employees who were not able to find roles at Quikr received an e-mail on Friday evening stating that there were no positions open in Quikr and they should pursue opportunities outside. The mail also said that it would be the official notification for commencement of notice period.

CommonFloor is vacating its office space and will be moving to Quikr premises.

maxHeap Technologies Pvt Ltd-run CommonFloor had around 650 employees at last count, according to a company official who did not confirm the total number of people who had joined Quikr after the acquisition.

They said that Quikr has a full-fledged team and did not want to absorb new people for the same roles.

“A good percentage has been absorbed (into various roles),” said Lalit Mangal, co-founder and chief technology officer at CommonFloor.

The process to find suitable roles began soon after the acquisition, according to one employee who has already exited CommonFloor in January. This person requested not to be identified.

“As part of the overall integration exercise, we have been analysing all our assets and believe it is best to consolidate our physical as well as people assets based on our business needs,” Quikr said in a response to Mint.

The company did not share details on the total number of employees absorbed from CommonFloor but added that “it was an ongoing process”.

CommonFloor was valued at over $150 million when the company raised Rs.60 crore from Google Capital in December 2014. It has so far raised Rs.321 crore from Tiger, Accel Partners and Google Capital since 2011.

However, the valuations and revenues were disproportionate in the case of CommonFloor. The company generated Rs.45.76 crore sales for the year ended 31 March 2015, according to documents with the Registrar of Companies.

Quikr reported sales of Rs.24.78 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015. The company has so far raised about $346 million from Investment AB Kinnevik, Tiger Global, Steadview Capital Management, Matrix Partners India and others since 2008.

[“source-Livemint”]

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