By Biodun Busari

Video conferencing platform, Zoom, has fired its president, Greg Tomb, without a tangible reason as stated according to the company in a regulatory filing.

Tomb, a former Google executive, who took up the role in June 2022 had been active on earnings calls and supervising the company’s sales but had his contract terminated abruptly.

According to a spokesperson for Zoom, the tech firm ended Tomb’s contract “without cause” and not looking for a replacement, BBC said on Friday.

Tomb reported directly to chief executive officer Eric Yuan, who started Zoom in 2011 and was at the top echelon as the company emerged came one of the pandemic’s biggest winners.

Zoom became popular for video conferencing during the pandemic, and it has been instrumental in virtual social gatherings like weddings and funerals.

It became massive during the pandemic year that in April 2020 the company said 300 million daily participants were on Zoom calls.

At the time of Tomb’s appointment, Yuan said he was delighted about the strength he was adding to the leadership team.

“Greg is a highly respected technology industry leader and has deep experience in helping to scale companies at critical junctures,” Yuan had said.

Tomb said he was thrilled to join the team and help “drive growth” as businesses worldwide addressed their communications needs.

But it has been a difficult period for the company, as it struggled to sustain its pandemic explosive momentum, and like many others in the tech sector – it has been forced to lay off staff.

Despite Zoom tripling its headcount in two years during the pandemic, the company slashed 15% of its staff – 1,300 people – to deal with waning demand in February.

“We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyse our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities,” Yuan said.

As companies look to cut costs in the face of an economic downturn, Zoom could be left behind to the advantage of competitors such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack.