PTON - Peloton Interactive, Inc.
30.51 +0.01 (0.03%)
After hours: 4:59PM EST
| Previous Close | 30.06 |
| Open | 30.08 |
| Bid | 30.35 x 900 |
| Ask | 30.55 x 1400 |
| Day's Range | 28.85 - 30.77 |
| 52 Week Range | 20.46 - 37.02 |
| Volume | 5,237,043 |
| Avg. Volume | 5,158,737 |
| Market Cap | 8.556B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | N/A |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -9.17 |
| Earnings Date | Feb 04, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 34.70 |
- Yahoo Finance Video
Peloton Senior VP on the future of fitness
Peloton Senior VP of Retail Jennifer Parker joins Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi on The First Trade to discuss the growth of the company and how the fitness industry could change in 2020.
- Yahoo Finance Video
Peloton jumps after Baird adds it to 'fresh pick' list
Baird added the exercise equipment maker to its "fresh pick" list, with the firm noting a number of factors will lead to upside for Peloton, despite its recent TV ad controversy. Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith discusses with Ines Ferre on The Ticker.
- GlobeNewswire
Peloton Interactive, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Release Date, Conference Call and Webcast
Peloton Interactive, Inc. (PTON) will release its second quarter fiscal 2020 results after the U.S. stock market closes on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. The Company will also hold a conference call to discuss results at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) that day. The U.S. toll free dial-in for the conference call is 1-877-667-0469 and the international dial-in number is 1-346-406-0807.
- Bloomberg
SAP Says Companies Will See Spread of Activism From Stakeholders
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24.SAP SE’s co-chief executive officer said companies will continue to face activism not only from shareholders, but increasingly from employees and consumers.“This will continue to be something that CEOs will have to understand and balance across the different stakeholders,” Jennifer Morgan said in an interview with Bloomberg News’s Stephanie Flanders on Tuesday at Davos.The Walldorf, Germany-based company attracted the interest of activists at Elliott Management Corp., which revealed a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.3 billion) stake when SAP announced a change in strategy in April.Read More: SAP’s an Old Company With New TricksActivists have been broadening their scope of engagement with companies. Protesters have been pressing BlackRock Inc. to divest from fossil fuel companies and others that contribute to climate change, while employees at Google have protested over the conduct of executives.Morgan -- who became co-CEO in October alongside Christian Klein and is the first female chief executive of a DAX-listed company said -- said user experience is set to be the new battleground.“If a company is not competing on experience its a race to the bottom”, she said. “When you’re in a consumer-led economy like the United States, for example, the disruption that we see happening for traditional industries is happening in the experience gap”.Morgan used fitness company Peloton Interactive Inc. as a good example of tapping into someone else’s experience “gap” saying they provide not just a better service but a real experience that people will pay more for.To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Noom Signs Up Dieters as Investors See New Wins for Weight Loss
(Bloomberg) -- This New Year’s Day, 55,000 people signed up to lose weight with the smartphone app Noom. You’ve probably seen the ads -- it claims to have helped more than 350,000 get slimmer.Dieting, not to mention keeping weight off, is an iffy proposition, but Americans spend billions each year trying.Noom, which combines human coaches and AI, has attracted $114 million from A-list investors such as Sequoia Capital, Groupe Arnault-backed Aglaé Ventures, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, Serena Williams, and other prominent names that see promise in its approach and growth.The company’s founders say they’re in constant conversation with their investors who are watching the market to assess a possible IPO as soon as this year.Crowded MarketIndeed, in a competitive market, Noom has racked up impressive growth, driven in part by aggressive advertising: Noom closed 2019 with $237 million in revenue, up from $61 million and $12 million in the two previous years, respectively.“For a certain demographic, Weight Watchers is more comfortable and familiar,” said David Katz, founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center. “For a younger, more digitally savvy audience, Noom is a different way to get a grip.”Shares in WW International Inc., the diet company formerly known as Weight Watchers, have more than doubled from last year’s low in June. In September, WW announced the Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus Tour with shareholder Oprah Winfrey. Investors will have to wait for WW’s fourth-quarter results in late February for a sense about early-year sign ups.Industry analysts note the cyclical nature of the dieting industry and that Noom’s robust start this year does not necessarily herald lasting success.“You’ve got a lot of program starts after the holidays, and that’s the nature of the business,” said Steven Halper, a senior health-care IT and managed care analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.Pounds Off, Pounds On“You get in shape, you lose your weight, everyone wants to look good at the beach in the summer time, and lo and behold the weight comes back on,” Halper said. He covers Tivity Health Inc., which acquired WW rival Nutrisystem in March.Noom was founded over a decade ago by Artem Petakov, a former Google engineer, and Saeju Jeong, lover of heavy metal, who strayed from his family lineage of 29 medical doctors to be an entrepreneur.“Noom’s story didn’t initially work,” said Amy Sun, a partner at Sequoia Capital. Sequoia invested for the first time in the $58 million Series E round that Noom announced in May 2019.“They tried a whole bunch of different angles, including doing pure AI where it’s completely automated, and they tried 100% human coaches, and it wasn’t until they married the two that the company started to grow,” said Sun.The company now employs 1,600 remote, full-time coaches in 36 states.Not Peloton“The product they have today is not what they started with,” said Miyuki Matsumoto, head of U.S. investments at Groupe Arnault’s tech venture-capital arm Aglaé Ventures. The firm invested the second most after Sequoia in the most recent funding round.“We weren’t thinking we were going to get our money back in two years or less, even though that’s a possibility,” Matsumoto said.Sun notes that Sequoia is looking to capitalize on the trend of digital companies focused on helping people manage their health. Other investors saw that trend in Peloton Interactive Inc., which priced at $29 a share in its September IPO, but traded as low at $21 a share a month later.“Peloton is quite different because so much of their revenue is hardware,” Sun said. “It’s hardware plus subscription, versus Noom is all digital.”To contact the reporter on this story: Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ian FisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Smart Speakers Get New Scrutiny Ahead of U.K. Government Report
(Bloomberg) -- Smart speakers such as those made by Amazon.com Inc. are to come under new scrutiny by the U.K. government when it publishes the results of a consultation into the security features of connected consumer devices.U.K. Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan said the results of the public inquiry, which concluded in June, will be released within the next “month or so” and contain proposals for mandatory industry requirements that could lead to potential new regulation.“We need to go out and ask what requirements are needed when you’re launching and operating these kinds of products so that people are safe,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday. “What more do the companies need to build in for security?”The publication will be broad and cover a wide range of so-called Internet of Things technologies, but comes as regulators and lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe examine whether Google, Apple Inc. and Amazon violated privacy by employing human reviewers to listen to voice commands recorded by digital assistants.Smart SpeakersBloomberg first reported in April that Amazon had a team of thousands of workers around the world listening to Alexa audio requests with the goal of improving the software.“We want to be pro-innovation and pro-tech, and encourage people to innovate,” Morgan said, “but recognize that we need to strike a balance, and help the public buying these devices to be aware of some of the concerns people have.”She said there was “massive potential” for connected devices in areas from health care to just turning lights on and off, but that the government has “an important role to play” in helping the public make sense of security questions being brought up.Read more about Silicon Valley eavesdropping here.Connected home devices surged in popularity last year and led to the inclusion of smart speakers in the virtual basket of products used by the Office for National Statistics to calculate U.K. inflation. Consulting firm Juniper Research Ltd. estimates that by 2023 the global annual market for smart speakers will reach $11 billion, and there will be about 7.4 billion voice-controlled devices.Still, the rise in use of connected devices, combined with the advent of super fast 5G mobile networks, has sparked concerns among cybersecurity experts who worry bad actors will have even more options to hack into or target devices.Amazon faces a lawsuit brought by a man who claims someone took control of a Ring video camera installed on his garage and spoke to his children, one among a set of similar incidents.In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Morgan said the government will ensure Huawei Technologies Co. is not involved in “critical national infrastructure” as it weighs up whether the Chinese company can play a role in its 5G telecommunications networks.U.K. GrowthVenture capital firms invested 9.2 billion pounds ($12 billion) in the U.K. last year, up 22% from a year earlier, according to a report from consultancy KPMG and PitchBook released on Wednesday. European funds are spending record amounts as the technology industry on the continent becomes more competitive with peers in the U.S. and Asia.“We’ve got great digital skills, we’ve got obviously a very active, well-developed VC investment market, we’ve got a government that wants to support,” innovation and further changes, Morgan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “There are a number of different reasons why people will set up in the U.K.”Morgan’s comments came after Felix Capital, the London-based venture capital firm that backed Goop Inc., Farfetch Ltd. and Peloton Interactive Inc., closed its third round of funding, raising $300 million, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.The round doubles the company’s assets under management to more than $600 million, Felix said. The firm generally invests in technology companies targeting consumers with online services such as delivering high-end designer clothes and vegetarian meal boxes.Europe as a whole is beginning to benefit from experience, having had a generation of successful startups to learn from, Felix founder Frederic Court said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.Europe now has “the benefit of 10, 15, 20 years of having grown the likes of Spotify,” Court said. That’s led to “significant improvement of the quality of the management that entrepreneurs can access.”As the U.K. approaches a Jan. 31 deadline to leave the European Union trading bloc, the government is hoping that the tech sector continues to be a draw for new businesses and a growth engine for the economy. As long as talent continues to flow into the country, more certainty about the Brexit process could encourage venture capital investors to deploy more cash, KPMG said in its report.To contact the reporters on this story: Nate Lanxon in London at nlanxon@bloomberg.net;Amy Thomson in London at athomson6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- TheStreet.com
Peloton Gets Boost as Wedbush Initiates Coverage With a Bullish Rating
Peloton, the home exercise machine maker, is more that just a fad, according to analysts at Wedbush.
- Yahoo Finance
Former Apple store chief Ron Johnson: Amazon is in trouble
Ron Johnson says Amazon is pulling up to a crossroads after dominating retail this past decade.
- Yahoo Finance
Peloton plans to open more retail locations
Senior vice president of Peloton retail Jennifer Parker tells Yahoo Finance the company’s store base could 'double' over time.
- Bloomberg
Casper Warns of an Unusual Risk in its IPO Filing: Influencers
(Bloomberg) -- Online mattress seller Casper Sleep Inc. filed for an initial public offering with an unusual warning for potential investors: It uses influencers for marketing.Influencers, people with large online followings whom Casper pays to test and talk about its mattresses, “may materially and adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties,” the company said in a prospectus on Friday.Because Casper derives the majority of its sales from internet marketing, it relies on influencers on Instagram and YouTube to spread the word about its products. But influencers are often marketing amateurs, posting without a brand’s direct approval over their work. They may fail to properly disclose payment for a post -- a lapse that has caused the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to fine other brands in the past. Or they may post unsavory or controversial content that will reflect poorly on the brand.In a quick scan of posts that tag Casper on Instagram, some look like typical mattress ads, with influencers sitting on the memory foam or posing by the delivery box and smiling, sometimes holding their babies or dogs. In one post marked as an ad, a woman is wearing revealing lace undergarments, pictured from behind. In another post, which tags and promotes the brand but is not marked as an ad, a man’s bare backside is featured next to a Casper box.Casper isn’t the first to mention influencer marketing in its IPO prospectus, but may be the first to specifically highlight influencers as a risk factor for investors. Peloton Interactive Inc., which makes exercise bikes and went public in September, noted the increased burden of monitoring compliance for ads across media, including social networks. The maker of Madewell clothing, which filed for an IPO last year, called influencer marketing “experimental” in its prospectus and warned that it might not be able to maintain buzz around its products, or might have to increase its level of spending.To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair BarrFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Benzinga
SoulCycle Owner In Talks For Investment To Boost Competition With Peloton: Reports
Fitness club company and SoulCycle owner Equinox is close to reaping an investment from private equity firm Silver Lake to help it expand its at-home exercise platform to better compete with Peloton Interactive ...
- Bloomberg
Equinox Closes In on New Funding to Challenge Peloton in At-Home Fitness
(Bloomberg) -- Equinox, the luxury gym chain operator and majority owner of SoulCycle Inc., is in advanced discussions to secure new funding from investors including private equity firm Silver Lake, according to people with knowledge of the matter.The investment would help the fitness company expand a digital platform designed to compete against rival Peloton Interactive Inc., said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Equinox is working with an adviser to help secure an investment, they said.A deal -- the value of which couldn’t immediately be learned -- hasn’t been finalized, but could be reached as soon as this month, one of the people said.Representatives for Equinox and Silver Lake declined to comment.Peloton, which had recovered from its price slump following its Sept. 25 initial public offering, fell 6% to $27.87 in New York trading Thursday. Fitness equipment maker Nautilus Inc., the owner of brands including Bowflex, Nautilus and Schwinn, surged 29%.Boycott SpatThe New York-based company, led by Harvey Spevak, is searching for new investors after some members boycotted its brands in response to a decision by part-owner Stephen Ross, the billionaire founder of Related Cos., to host a fundraiser for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. Spevak, who is also an investor, told members that Ross had no role in running the company and touted its donations to causes promoting diversity and inclusivity.Equinox operates 100 clubs across the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and has separately announced plans to enter the Middle East. Equinox has counted Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman and celebrities such as Andy Cohen and Hilary Swank among its members, while its SoulCycle brand has been featured on television shows and movies.The company, which is also backed by consumer-focused private equity firm L Catterton, in August announced a multi-brand digital platform that sought to capitalize on members’ desire to work out at home or while traveling. It has announced plans to offer a SoulCycle bike designed for at-home use and a proprietary Woodway treadmill to bolster the platform.Healthy Priority“In the $4 trillion wellness economy, consumers have demonstrated a clear desire to prioritize a healthy lifestyle, even when the demands of day-to-day life get in the way,” the company said at the time.Equinox also has expanded beyond fitness clubs to travel and talent management for its instructors. Last summer, the company opened its first luxury hotel in Hudson Yards, a project on the west side of Manhattan that was developed in part by Ross’s Related.(Updates with Peloton shares in fifth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net;Sridhar Natarajan in New York at snatarajan15@bloomberg.net;Crystal Tse in New York at ctse44@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, ;Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, ;Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Michael HythaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Investor's Business Daily
Fitness Device Upstart Takes On Apple, Peloton, Fitbit At CES 2020
China-based Huami made a splash at CES 2020 by introducing a flurry of wearable fitness devices, including ones that compete with Apple, Fitbit, Garmin and Peloton Interactive.
- Bloomberg
Coleman’s Hedge Fund Tiger Global Ends 2019 With 33% Gain
(Bloomberg) -- Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management returned 33% last year, beating the broader stock market even after slashing its valuation of beleaguered e-cigarette company Juul Labs Inc.The stock-picking hedge fund was just down 0.2% in December, according to a person familiar with the matter.In September, the fund cut its valuation Juul by half to $19 billion, Bloomberg reported. The fund was poised to record a $1 billion profit on its private investment in exercise company start-up Peloton Interactive Inc. if it went public at $26 a share. Peloton debuted at $29. The S&P 500 Index gained 29% last year.Tiger Global’s returns benefited as its seven-largest disclosed U.S. stock positions as of the third quarter all climbed double-digits last year. Of them, Apollo Global Management Inc. jumped about 107%, TransDigm Group Inc. soared 84% and JD.com Inc. rose 68%.Coleman’s Tiger Global, which runs both a hedge fund and also makes private venture investments, oversees $36 billion. The firm’s assets have swelled by 80% since May 2015.A spokeswoman for the firm declined to comment.(Updates with holdings in the fourth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Hema Parmar in New York at hparmar6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Melissa Karsh, Josh FriedmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Peloton Short Sellers Get a Small Victory With Sell-Off Picking Up Steam
(Bloomberg) -- Peloton Interactive Inc. shares are on track to wipe out a strong start to the year, delivering a small win to investors betting against the company and its roughly $2,000 stationary bikes.Shares of the New York-based company fell as much as 5.1% Wednesday and are on pace to erase what topped out as a $2.20 gain so far in 2020. The stock is now up less than 2% from a September IPO, compared to a the S&P 500’s more than 9% gain to fresh record highs.Short bets against the company have remained steady over the last six weeks, with more than 70% of shares available for trading currently sold short, data compiled by financial analytics firm S3 Partners show. Citron Capital LLC reiterated its short stance on shares Monday with a price target of just $5.Second-quarter earnings are estimated to come some time next month. Canaccord analysts wrote in an overnight research note that a “robust holiday and New Year’s resolution selling season should set the tone early in the year.”To contact the reporter on this story: Bailey Lipschultz in New York at blipschultz@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Steven FrommFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
ClassPass Now Worth More Than $1 Billion After Latest Funding Round
(Bloomberg) -- ClassPass is now worth more than $1 billion, after raising new cash from investors, the startup said on Wednesday. The latest funding marks the fitness class subscription app’s entry into the unicorn club of startups, as fitness companies titillate investors.The New York-based company, which lets users take classes across multiple boutique fitness studios and gyms without purchasing memberships at those locations, raised $285 million led by L Catterton and Apax Digital. The startup will use the funds to continue its international expansion.“While the bulk of our revenue has historically come from the U.S., we are definitely seeing a shift over the past six months,” said Chief Executive Officer Fritz Lanman. “Our international traction is strong and indeed a large part of why we were able to raise such a large financing.”ClassPass says it now has more than 30,000 partnership businesses on its platform, a third of which are international, and 650 employees across five continents. Much of ClassPass’s growth over the last 18 months has come from its international operations, as it has expanded to 28 countries.ClassPass’s latest funding round suggests investors haven’t given up on the idea that people still like to work out with others and want to mix and match different types of exercise, from kickboxing to Pilates or strength training. Fellow New York exercise companies Peloton Interactive Inc. and Mirror have gone the opposite route, betting that people prefer the flexibility of working out at home on their own schedule. Some offer a mix of both. “Users will pair boutique classes with an at-home workout on rainy days, which is why we have added complementary audio and visual workouts to our app,” Payal Kadakia, the founder and executive chairman, said. “Ultimately, we think there is room in the industry for both models, and are happy to partner with several brands, like Peloton, who also offer in-person classes.”To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Molly Schuetz at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMeyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch
Huami and Studio take on Peloton with the Amazfit HomeStudio treadmill
Chinese wearable company Huami and fitness startup Studio are teaming up to build a connected treadmill, which they unveiled today as part of Huami's keynote as CES. The most notable feature of the Amazfit HomeStudio is its lack of a traditional treadmill front. Huami may be an unfamiliar name to most U.S. readers, but the company says it shipped 18.1 million wearable devices in 2017, and it went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018.
- Yahoo Finance
Planet Fitness CEO: 'We are getting ready for our next explosive growth era'
Growth looks poised to continue for discount gym operator Planet Fitness, CEO Chris Rondeau tells Yahoo Finance.
- Yahoo Finance
Gold's Gym CEO breaks down why home fitness is 'disrupting the industry'
The CEO of Gold's Gym explains how the traditional gym industry is planning to counter the rise of home fitness companies.
- TheStreet.com
Peloton Wavers After Baird Analyst Affirms Outperform Rating
The stock has roller-coastered since the late-September IPO, having run up near $37 in early December.
- Bloomberg
What We Learned From 2019’s Worst PR Disasters
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As a public relations professor, I know a few of my fellow professionals can be counted on to do things that keep my students’ jaws dropping in class each week — and, like 2018, this year was no exception. Here are the five decisions that beat out stiff competition to rank as the worst corporate PR moves of 2019:1\. Dennis Muilenburg’s week of silence after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March. As crisis guru Helio Fred Garcia once wrote, “incremental delays in showing that an organization cares can lead to greater-than-incremental harm.” Even if Muilenburg, Boeing Co.’s now-former chief executive officer, didn’t initially have all the answers about his company’s role in the disaster, he should have immediately expressed sympathy for the victims and their loved ones, then pledged to provide the public with more information as soon as possible. Every PR executive worth their paycheck knows that, during a crisis, it’s critical to say something during what Garcia calls the “golden hour.” Just as a patient having a heart attack is much more likely to survive if they are brought to the hospital in the first hour, an organization is more likely to survive a crisis with its reputation intact if it immediately speaks for itself rather than allowing others to speculate about its motives and behavior.2\. The Peloton ad depicting a svelte woman making a video to thank her male partner for buying her an exercise bike for Christmas. The ad was widely interpreted as disturbing because the woman appeared to many to be frightened. Some pointed out that the woman was already trim and hardly needed to lose weight; others said the ad reinforced stereotypes of women needing to stay in shape in order to keep their affluent significant others (the bike costs over $2,000, before monthly subscription fees). These reactions were of course eminently predictable. The key lesson for brands? Test audiences’ reaction before going public with new campaigns. The ad could have been an easy win just by, say, showing a woman giving the gift to a man instead.Peloton Interactive Inc. loses more points for crafting a response as tone-deaf as the ad itself. “We’re disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial,” the company said. An insincere non-apology is the only thing worse than not apologizing at all.3\. Richard Branson’s tweet launching his Centre for Entrepreneurship in South Africa with a picture of all white people. The need to ensure diversity when doing anything public shouldn’t require further explanation in 2019.4\. Sallie Mae’s decision to fly more than 100 staffers to Hawaii to celebrate a record number of student loans. The (totally foreseeable) NBC News report on this one pretty much summed it up: “As 1 in 5 American adults wonder how to pay off their combined $1.6 trillion in student debt, Sallie Mae executives and sales team members wrestled with a different question: Between meetings, how should they spend their time on their five-day paid trip to the luxury Fairmont resort on Wailea beach in Maui?” Seriously? In the era of social media outrage, organizations need to work a little harder to make sure their executives don’t appear so deeply out of touch with the publics they serve.5\. Hallmark’s decision to pull — and then reinstate — an ad showing lesbian brides. The only thing less savvy than alienating important audiences is offending everyone. Companies have to decide what they stand for before they’re put on the spot. Another news flash: As we approach the year 2020, homophobia is not a winning strategy.Dishonorable mentions also go to Facebook Inc. (another organization that should be doing some hard thinking about its values and has managed to offend absolutely everyone) for not vetting for truth in political advertising on its platform and to Australian Kmart for selling child bride costumes. Their executives apparently missed the class on the need to consider the deeper messages their products send.To contact the author of this story: Kara Alaimo at kara.s.alaimo@hofstra.eduTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Brooke Sample at bsample1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Kara Alaimo is an assistant professor of public relations at Hofstra University and author of “Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication.” She previously served in the Obama administration. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Investor's Business Daily
These Consumer Electronics Stocks Got A Post-Christmas Bump
Several consumer electronics stocks got a lift on Thursday after investors considered which companies had hot-selling gadgets this Christmas. Apple and iRobot were among the gainers.
- Yahoo Finance
DraftKings to take a gamble on Wall Street despite not being profitable
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins tells Yahoo Finance's On the Move why the company is going public despite not being profitable
- Yahoo Finance
Boeing, Nike, and McDonald's: Why CEO turnover spiked in 2019
The year 2019 could be called the year of the CEO exodus.
