Peloton’s pandemic-era saga is officially over

The pandemic was nasty. Four years ago we were all confined at home and would continue to stay at home for months. With all of us trapped in our homes, some products have taken a serious hit from COVID-19. Grocery delivery services have exploded, as have Zoom and others .

The same goes for Peloton and its line of exercise equipment. People bought bikes and treadmills in droves, increasing the company’s market capitalization from $6 billion to $50 billion. However, what goes up must come down, and Peloton’s market cap has shrunk to $10 billion by 2022 and is now around $1 billion. The company’s pandemic-era success story is officially over, and it’s now focused on cutting costs. So that means layoffs. Peloton is cutting 15 percent of its workforce, which amounts to 400 people.

Aside from these massive layoffs, the company is . Barry McCarthy, CEO, president and board director, is also stepping down after two years in the role. He was previously CFO at Spotify and Netflix. Peloton says it is currently in the process of finding a successor, with current chairwoman Karen Boone and director Chris Bruzzo serving as interim CEOs.

However, it is expanding its international reach, announcing a more “targeted and effective” overseas marketing strategy. Peloton hopes that all of these steps combined will reduce annual costs by $200 million by the end of fiscal year 2025.

All of this comes after the company reported some really bad earnings and losses for the third quarter of 2024, with a 21 percent drop in paid subscriptions compared to 2023. Unfortunately, Q2 wasn’t much better. Not that the stock market really means anything, just look at Tesla or those weird Trump stocks, but Peloton stock has gone from $156 in 2021 to, uh, under $3 today.

These aren’t just “people going out again” numbers, as the company has experienced its share of controversies that have nothing to do with the pandemic. The Tread+ Treadmill 90 injuries and death to a child. Peloton also on the issue of safety. It’s been a bad few years.

All of this isn’t to say that Peloton can’t turn things around, as it’s a pretty iconic brand in the space. However, there is certainly work to be done to reverse this decline.

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