Peloton lay off the company’s roughly 2,800 employees as part of an effort to weather growth struggles after its meteoric rise in popularity in the early days of the pandemic. Some of them were very upset and angry, and according to CNBCsome of them screwed up the company’s first general meeting to introduce the new CEO.
In addition to letting 20% of its workforce go — with no instructors affected by the layoffs — Peloton also replaced its top executive. John Foley, who also co-founded the company, stepped down and was replaced by former Spotify COO Barry McCarthy. CNBC said both former and current employees objected to angry comments in the chat section of the meeting, with one calling them all “terrible tone deaf”.
Another claimed that they were selling all of their Peloton clothing to be able to pay their bills. Another said: “The company has messed up by allowing people who have been fired into this conversation. The meeting, attended by both Foley and McCarthy, is said to have been cut short.
Peloton was massively popular just over a year ago and even hit a market value of $50 billion by January 2021. It’s now worth around $8 billion and bigger players like Amazon and Nike is said to be expressing an interest in repurchase fitness equipment manufacturer. While Peloton hasn’t said outright that it plans to let people go, Foley previously said the company “needs[s] To assess [its] organizational structure and size of the [its] group “to make business more flexible. It’s part of react bigger CNBC The report claims that the company is halting production of the Bike and Tread. Foley denied the rumour.
The former CEO also did not say whether the calls to remove him were part of the reason for his resignation. Activist investor Blackwells Capital has previously accused him of misleading investors about certain information, which, among other things, cost the company $40 billion. “I always thought there had to be a better CEO for Peloton than there was for me,” Foley said when McCarthy was officially named the company’s new CEO. McCarthy is expected to use his knowledge of content-driven subscription models to keep Peloton afloat, but he clearly has to win over his staff.
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