New Peloton chief executive Barry McCarthy is pushing aside suggestions that the home fitness brand will be put on the block, telling The Financial Times Monday (Feb. 14) that he’s moving across the country to help the company pursue growth opportunities.
Those opportunities, he told FT, include doubling its slate of on-demand content offerings, expanding into new companies and adding new products. Peloton’s market value dropped more than 80% before rallying when rumors surfaced about Nike, Amazon and other companies as potential buyers.
McCarthy, who was finance chief of Netflix and Spotify before coming to Peloton last week, said his focus is on growing Peloton, not selling it.
“If I thought it was likely that the business was going to be acquired in the foreseeable future, I can’t imagine it would be a rational act to move across the country,” he said. “There are lots of other things I could be doing with my time that are quite lucrative than hanging out with a business that’s about to be sold.”
If Peloton is sold, it would be the decision of those who hold a majority of the company’s votes through the possession of supervoting stock, including co-founder John Foley, who became executive chair last week when McCarthy took the helm.
“It’s not my vote,” McCarthy said. “It is, however, the vote of the shareholders, and I’m confident a large percentage of the votes will be cast in favor of my leadership of the business, which is why I agreed to step into the business in the first place.”
Activist investor Blackwells Capital is pushing Peloton to find a buyer and wants the company to get rid of its dual-class voting structure.
Related: Peloton Trims 2,800; Instructors Keep Their Positions
Last week, Peloton said it plans to cut 2,800 jobs globally, although Foley said its instructors will not be part of the layoffs. The move to trim payroll will eliminate about 20% of Peloton corporate positions as well as trim some warehouse and delivery jobs, which will give way to third-party logistics companies.
Peloton has also scrapped plans to build a factory in Ohio.
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