San Francisco: US exercise and fitness equipment company Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy has announced to cut 12 per cent of the workforce (nearly 500 employees) in a latest lay-off round, and he does not understand why people are not happy with his decision.
McCarthy was apparently surprised to learn that media reports “accentuated the negative” from his lay-off announcement.
The Verge reported, citing an internal memo the CEO issued, that accused the Wall Street Journal of creating the wrong impression instead of praising the company.
“We were expecting a story about redemption and the successful turnaround of Peloton, which is why we invested time on background briefing them on the state of our turnaround,” he wrote.
“The headline should have been that recent strong execution and today’s restructuring have positioned us to meet our fiscal year-end goal of break-even cash flow, with a renewed focus on accelerating our growth,” McCarthy said.
Instead, “the article creates the impression we have six months to live, which is at odds with the story we told and the state of the business. That’s on me and I apologise,” he mentioned.
Peloton in August laid off roughly 780 employees, shut down several stores and hiked prices on bikes and treadmills.
The company was rumoured to be acquired by Amazon earlier this year. Peloton has a community of nearly 7 million members.
McCarthy said that “I don’t want this news cycle to overshadow the difficult reality that 500 of our colleagues have been impacted today, or the gratitude I have for all they and you have done for the company”.
The latest job cuts will leave the company with nearly 3,800 employees globally, less than half the number it hired at its peak last year.
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