Zozi, a tours and activities marketplace, is “pretty far along in mergers and acquisitions talks” according to its boss.
Acting chief executive Elon Boms says:
“Zozi is in a strong position, and we are enthusiastically charging ahead.”
He stressed that the company is in talks with “multiple” companies, including Peek and other competitors.
Boms, who is an investor in the company and a member of its board of directors, described a day-to-day reality that is very different from the portrayal of the company in a widely circulated article in Tech Crunch.
The article focused on recent layoffs at the company and on a wrongful dismissal lawsuit brought against Zozi by its founder and former CEO.
Boms said the layoffs of about 40% of the staff were due to the company’s intention to “pivot” from a consumer-facing booking platform to a software provider to tour and activities companies.
“Zozi’s business is thriving despite changes in leadership and a healthy restructure of the team,” Boms said. “We grew revenue by 3 times last year, will comfortably grow 2 times this year, and March was yet another record-breaking month for sales. These changes will allow us to focus even more on our software business and the thousands of operators we proudly serve every day.”
Boms sees the dispute with the former CEO, Thomas Joseph Sassani, known as TJ, is a separate issue from Zozi’s future fortunes.
Sassani filed the claim against Zozi and some of its investors and board members in San Francisco County Superior Court on March 29.
The complaint describes a long list of offenses ranging from wrongful dismissal to failure to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation, to intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Sassani's attorney, Harmeet K. Dhillon, said she could not comment on ongoing litigation.
The board had fired Sassani in January, but most employees were unaware of it until many of them got their own pink slips on March 23.
Sassani’s absence was easy to explain, since he often worked at home, saying he suffered from ulcerative colitis. His lawsuit said he requested medical leave several times over a period of five years but never was granted it.
According to Tech Crunch, Sassani finally showed up when he crashed a “town hall meeting” called by the board after the layoffs.
Meanwhile, the Zozi board is interviewing candidates for the vacant CEO job.
“I’m a finance guy,” Boms said. “This is not my day job.”