Vishal Garg, who founded Better Home & Finance Holding Company (NASDAQ: BETR), has taken Better board control after an independent inspector of election certified that holders of 52.02% of voting power backed removal of all five incumbent directors. The Garg Group announced the certification on 5 October 2026, and the company’s special committee had earlier withdrawn its challenge to the inspector’s preliminary report.

What the Better board control result changed

The removal covered Chairman Harit Talwar and interim chief executive Daniel Lewis, plus the remaining three, Arnaud Massenet, Bhaskar Menon and Prabhu Narasimhan. Garg, left as the sole remaining director, cut the board from nine seats to five and named Gordon, Sarracino and two staff members to fill it.

Gordon is a co-founder of Electronic Arts and an advisor at Kleiner Perkins. Sarracino founded Activant Capital, which the release describes as a $1.45 billion venture fund, and is a former Better investor and director. The new board is taking steps to remove the stockholder rights plan, known as a poison pill, and to drop the company’s suit against Garg in federal court in Manhattan.

Fintechbits analysis

Why the special committee withdrawal matters

Earlier on 5 October, the special committee dropped its challenge to the inspector’s preliminary report. Its own release gave the reason as the expense and unpredictability of a drawn-out fight. That is a practical decision that says nothing about the merits, and it leaves an earlier dispute unresolved. In a separate release, the committee had said it opened an investigation into allegations that Garg was offering company interests and property to former employee shareholders in return for consents. Neither 5 October release addresses that allegation, and neither says whether the investigation continues.

Garg frames the result as a reversal for a public company chief executive who was pushed out, sued and won his way back within two months, a description supplied by his lawyer Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel. He also says only 1.7% of proxy fights over a public company board succeed in the last decade. Both are claims from the winning side, not independently verified. Fintechbits covered the run-up to the vote in its earlier report on the consent solicitation extension to 2 October.

Independence and other gaps in the winning side’s account

The most useful omission concerns independence. The five seats consist of Garg, two employees, Sarracino, who is a former director and investor, and Gordon, for whom the release lists no earlier tie to Better. Nasdaq rules generally expect a majority of independent directors on listed companies, subject to exemptions and cure periods, and the release does not say how Better will meet that expectation or whether it intends to rely on an exemption. That is Fintechbits’ reading of the board list and should be checked against Better’s filing.

The release also names an interim chief executive candidate without disclosing who it is. Better has been run by interim chief executive Daniel Lewis, whom the vote removed, so the company has no named chief executive while it restructures. The 90-day plan the release cites covers operational efficiency, growth from the Tinman AI platform and home equity lending, disposing of assets outside the core business and giving capital back to shareholders. It carries no targets, no asset list and no start date for the 90 days.

Why Better board control is unusual among activist outcomes

Better calls itself an AI-first mortgage and home equity platform and says it has funded more than $110 billion of loans. The growth plan leans on Tinman and on home equity lending, which sits alongside mortgage products Better already offers across all 50 U.S. states and the United Kingdom. Outside activists usually win these fights, as in the earlier Elliott and Jana activist moves, but at Better the winning side is the founder, so Better board control has returned to the person the company had replaced.

What to Watch Next

The signal to watch is the first Better filing after the vote. A Form 8-K should confirm the board changes, whether the poison pill has been withdrawn, and whether an independence exemption is claimed. The announcement of a permanent or interim chief executive, with a named person and terms, will tell shareholders whether the 90-day plan has a leader.

Questions and answers

Who controls the Better board after the consent solicitation?

Vishal Garg’s group won certification of 52.02% of voting power on 5 October 2026 to remove five directors. Garg then reduced the board to five seats and filled it with Bing Gordon, Steven Sarracino and two employees.

Why did the Better special committee withdraw its challenge?

The special committee said the decision served all stockholders given the expense and unpredictability of a drawn-out fight. It withdrew its challenge to the inspector of election’s preliminary report on 5 October 2026.

What happens to the Better poison pill and the lawsuit against Garg?

The new Better board is taking steps to remove the poison pill and drop the company’s suit against Garg in the Southern District of New York. The release does not say when either will happen.