Peloton’s cofounder is unclipping after a rough ride. John Foley is out as chief executive officer and will instead be executive chair, while Barry McCarthy will try to peddle Peloton into a new age as the new CEO. McCarthy is the former chief financial officer of Spotify and Netflix and is a self-proclaimed “passionate Peloton member.”
In a wild news dump Tuesday morning, the struggling company also announced it is cutting 2,800 jobs, including about 20% of the corporate workforce. (Don’t worry: Cody Rigsby isn’t going anywhere. Peloton said its roster of instructors will not be affected by cuts.)
“These decisions, particularly those related to our impacted Peloton team members, were not taken lightly,” Foley said in a statement. “We greatly value the contributions of our talented colleagues and are committed to supporting impacted team members in their transitions. We thank our global team members for their focus and dedication through this process.”
However, the company did cut its expected revenue and subscriber forecasts for the year in an early earnings release. It now projects fiscal 2022 revenue between $3.7 billion to $3.8 billion, down from its prior estimate of $4.4 billion to $4.8 billion. It also expects 3 million subscribers by end of year, instead of its previous estimate of 3.35 million to 3.45 million.
The cycle of bad company news comes amid fervent rumors of a takeover. Amazon, Apple and Nike are all on the speculative list of companies that could buy Peloton.
