On the heels of Peloton on Thursday announcing a 4% drop in revenue from last year, the company also said that CEO Barry McCarthy was stepping down and that it would lay off about 400 workers, or 15% of the staff.
Peloton, the maker of exercise equipment such as bikes and treadmills that were in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, has not turned a profit since December 2020 and is hoping to refinance upwards of $1 billion of debt. Once gyms began reopening post-pandemic, Peloton started having a harder time luring and maintaining buyers and subscribers to its digital workout classes.
“Hard as the decision has been to make additional head count cuts, Peloton simply had no other way to bring its spending in line with its revenue,” said McCarthy in a statement. After the news, Peloton’s share prices rose around 9% in premarket trading.
McCarthy, who was previously an executive at Spotify and Netflix joined the company in February 2022, succeeding its founder, John Foley. In his absence, board members Karen Boone and Chris Bruzzo will serve as interim co-chief executives.
