Info Edge Leadership Change Explained: Hitesh Oberoi Steps Down After 27 Years, Founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani Takes Over on 3 December
Key Takeaways
- Hitesh Oberoi steps down as Info Edge MD and CEO at the close of business on 2 December 2026, after nearly 27 years with the company.
- Founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani takes over as Executive Vice Chairman, MD and Group CEO from 3 December 2026, subject to shareholder approval, until 26 April 2031.
- Oberoi will stay on the board as a Non-Executive, Non-Independent Director, and says he wants more time for education, entrepreneurship, institution building, investing and philanthropy.
- Info Edge's Q2 FY27 consolidated net profit jumped 87 percent to Rs 649.8 crore, with recruitment revenue up 13.3 percent and 99acres narrowing its loss to Rs 1.6 crore.
- The board also declared a Rs 3 interim dividend, with 6 November as the record date and payment on or after 23 November.
Info Edge (India) Ltd, the company behind Naukri.com, announced a major leadership change on 28 October 2026: its founder, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, will return to the top executive job, succeeding Hitesh Oberoi, who is stepping down after nearly 27 years with the company. The change was announced alongside Info Edge's second-quarter results for FY27, and it marks the end of one of the longest chief executive tenures in India's listed internet sector.
Under the plan approved by the board, Oberoi will step down as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at the close of business on 2 December 2026. From 3 December 2026, Bikhchandani will take over as Executive Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer. Both moves are subject to shareholder approval. Oberoi will not leave the company altogether: subject to the same approval, he will remain on the board from 3 December as a Non-Executive, Non-Independent Director.
The announcement matters beyond a single company because Info Edge is one of India's earliest and most closely watched internet businesses. Naukri.com is the country's best-known recruitment platform, and the group also runs the property portal 99acres, the matrimonial platforms Jeevansathi and Aisle, and the education portal Shiksha. It is also a significant investor in India's start-up ecosystem. A founder returning to the chief executive role after more than a decade and a half is therefore a signal about how the company sees its next phase, particularly in recruitment, artificial intelligence and newer platforms.
What exactly was announced
The timeline is precise, and that precision is deliberate. Oberoi's executive role ends at the close of business on 2 December 2026, and Bikhchandani's new term begins the next day, 3 December 2026. According to the company's regulatory filing, as reported, Bikhchandani's term will run until 26 April 2031. The one-day handover leaves no gap at the top, and the long term gives shareholders and employees clarity about who will lead the company through the rest of the decade.
Oberoi has spent nearly 27 years at Info Edge, including more than 16 years as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. He joined the company in 2000 as Chief Operating Officer and director, and formally took over as CEO and Managing Director in 2010, when Bikhchandani moved into the role of Executive Vice Chairman. That history explains why the transition is being presented as a planned succession rather than a sudden exit: the two men have run the company together for most of its life as a listed business.
In his statement, Oberoi said that after nearly 27 years, he felt it was the right time to begin transitioning out of his full-time operating role. He said the decision had not been easy, that Info Edge had been a defining part of his life, and that he felt enormous gratitude and pride when looking back at what the team had built together. Bikhchandani said the two had built Info Edge together over more than 27 years, underlining the continuity the board wants investors to see.
Oberoi said he was stepping back to devote more time to education, entrepreneurship, institution building, investing and philanthropy, and to spend more time with his family. The company said he had wanted to see through a few things before stepping back, and it pointed to progress across its main businesses as evidence that the timing was right.
Why Oberoi says the time is right
Oberoi's own checklist for the handover gives a useful snapshot of where Info Edge stands. He said Naukri now has a clear artificial intelligence and data strategy which is playing out well and will help power its next phase of growth. On the earnings call, he said the company had done a fairly good job of articulating that AI strategy, that it was now embedded in the back end, and that it was now showing up in products that generate revenue.
He also pointed to 99acres, which he said has established strong market leadership over the last couple of years and is now a fast-growing, robust cash-generating business. Jeevansathi and Aisle, he said, continue to gain market share and are now profitable. Jobhai, the group's blue-collar hiring platform, has built a credible monetisation engine and laid the foundations for a much larger business, according to the company.
That framing matters because it answers the obvious question about any founder succession: is the outgoing chief executive leaving a business in good shape, or is the change a response to trouble? On the numbers reported the same day, the core businesses are growing, even if not every segment is moving at the same speed. The company also stressed its institutional depth, saying it has a strong foundation supported by senior leaders who have been with Info Edge for more than 20 years. In other words, the argument is that the company does not depend on one person, even after a 27-year tenure.
There is also a striking measure of how much changed during Oberoi's tenure. According to a report citing the company's filing, Info Edge's market capitalisation increased from Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 80,000 crore during his tenure. That figure should be read as a marker of scale rather than a precise valuation on any single day, since market capitalisation moves with the share price, but it captures the journey from an early internet company to a large listed group. Shares of Info Edge ended the trading session on 28 October 2026 1.23 percent lower at Rs 1,205 apiece on the BSE, a modest fall on a day when the broader market also closed lower.
The Q2 FY27 results announced the same day
The leadership change did not come alone. Info Edge reported a strong September quarter, which helps explain why the board could present the transition as orderly. Consolidated net profit jumped 87 percent year on year to Rs 649.8 crore in Q2 FY27, from Rs 347.5 crore in the same quarter a year earlier. On a sequential basis, net profit rose 32.6 percent from Rs 490.1 crore in the previous quarter.
Operating revenue increased 12.2 percent year on year and 2.6 percent quarter on quarter to Rs 903.9 crore. Other income surged 164.8 percent to Rs 428.4 crore, from Rs 161.8 crore a year earlier, which helped profit growth outpace revenue growth and took total income to Rs 1,332.3 crore, from Rs 967.2 crore in Q2 FY26. Total expenses increased 4.5 percent to Rs 588.6 crore, from Rs 563.5 crore. The board also declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per share for FY27, with 6 November fixed as the record date and payment on or after 23 November.
On a standalone basis, operating revenue rose 12.8 percent year on year to Rs 841.7 crore. The recruitment solutions business, which includes Naukri, generated revenue of Rs 632.3 crore, up 13.3 percent year on year, while segment profit before tax increased 19.9 percent to Rs 373.7 crore. Recruitment billings increased 12.6 percent to Rs 613.8 crore, although the company said quarterly growth was affected by the timing of customer renewals. AI and data products for recruiters and job seekers accounted for a high single-digit share of recruitment revenue, with an annualised run rate of around Rs 240 crore based on the second quarter.
The property business also improved. 99acres reported a 16.7 percent increase in revenue to Rs 134.3 crore, and its segment loss before tax narrowed sharply to Rs 1.6 crore, from Rs 23.4 crore a year earlier. Billings grew 21.2 percent to Rs 148.3 crore, accelerating from 16.5 percent growth in the first quarter. The company said broker resale and rental listings increased 14 percent year on year, new project listings rose 15 percent, and owner listings grew 23 percent.
In matchmaking, Jeevansathi's revenue increased 16.5 percent to Rs 39.5 crore, while segment profit before tax stood at Rs 1.8 crore. Aisle's revenue rose 35.1 percent to around Rs 13 crore, and combined billings for Jeevansathi and Aisle increased 23.1 percent. The company said Jeevansathi retains over 45 percent profile share in Hindi-speaking markets and leads in daily logged-in users across these regions, and that it is testing new features, pricing formats and AI-led recommendations to improve matchmaking, with billing growth expected to accelerate in the second half.
Not every segment grew. Education platform Shiksha's revenue declined 8.5 percent to Rs 35.5 crore, and it reported a segment loss before tax of Rs 0.8 crore, compared with a profit of Rs 1.9 crore a year earlier. Alongside the results, the board also approved the sale of its entire stakes in MedCords and Unnati Online for about Rs 5,000 each; the company said those investments had been fully impaired in FY24 and FY20 respectively. It also approved an investment of up to Rs 150 crore in wholly owned subsidiary Redstart Labs through an equity subscription over the next 18 months, to support working capital, investment opportunities and general corporate purposes.
What the change means for Naukri, 99acres and job seekers
For most readers, the practical question is simpler than the boardroom structure: will anything change for people who use Naukri, 99acres or Jeevansathi? In the short term, the answer is probably very little. The businesses, their brands and their day-to-day teams remain the same, and the transition has been announced more than a month in advance, with the outgoing chief executive staying on the board. That design is meant to avoid disruption.
Over a longer period, the change could still matter in three ways. First, a founder returning as chief executive often brings a different risk appetite. Bikhchandani built Info Edge from its early days, and founders returning to operating roles sometimes push harder on new bets, acquisitions or long-term investments than a professional chief executive nearing the end of a long tenure. Second, the emphasis on AI in recruitment is likely to continue, and may even accelerate, since both Oberoi and the company have framed Naukri's AI and data strategy as the engine of its next phase. For job seekers, that could mean more AI-led matching, recommendations and screening tools, and for recruiters, more data-driven hiring products. Third, the improving economics at 99acres and the profitability at Jeevansathi and Aisle give the group more room to invest without depending entirely on Naukri's cash flows.
There are also things to watch that could test the succession. Investors will watch whether recruitment billings growth recovers from the renewal-timing effect cited in the second quarter, whether 99acres can sustain its narrowing losses and turn consistently profitable, and whether Shiksha's decline stabilises. They will also watch how Bikhchandani balances his roles as founder, large shareholder voice and now full-time chief executive, and whether the senior leadership team that Oberoi praised stays intact through the transition.
For job seekers and employers, none of this changes the basics: Naukri remains a marketplace where hiring demand, salary levels and skill shortages matter far more than who holds the chief executive title. But leadership changes at the top of India's largest listed recruitment group are a useful signal about where the company thinks growth will come from, and for now, that signal points clearly towards AI-led recruitment, a stronger property business and continued investment in newer platforms.
What happens next
The next formal step is shareholder approval for both appointments: Oberoi's move to a non-executive, non-independent directorship and Bikhchandani's appointment as Executive Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Group CEO. Until that approval is in place, the appointments remain subject to it, as the company itself has stated. The handover date itself, however, is fixed: Oberoi steps down at the close of business on 2 December 2026, and Bikhchandani takes over on 3 December 2026.
After that, the first real test will be the December quarter results and the commentary that accompanies them, when Bikhchandani will speak as chief executive rather than as founder and vice chairman. Investors, employees and users will then be able to judge whether the transition is genuinely seamless, as the board intends, or whether a founder's return changes the company's pace and priorities in ways that only become visible over several quarters.
Conclusion
Hitesh Oberoi's departure after nearly 27 years closes a long chapter in Indian internet history, from Naukri's early years to a diversified listed group spanning jobs, property, matchmaking and education. Sanjeev Bikhchandani's return as chief executive opens the next one, with a term running to April 2031 and a clear mandate to build on businesses that are, on the latest numbers, mostly growing. The succession has been planned, announced in advance and paired with strong quarterly results, which is exactly how boards hope such changes will look. Whether it proves as smooth in practice as it looks on paper will depend on execution in the quarters ahead, not on the announcement itself.