Pinterest Is Shooting Itself in the Foot With Its CEO Change

Shares of image-based social media company Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) have fallen more than 75% in the past year, as slowing user signups, a reversal of the trends that accelerated its growth early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and worries about the impact of an economic recession on advertising revenue combined to hurt confidence in the stock. The situation finally reached a head late Tuesday, and Pinterest took the aggressive move of bringing in outside help to take over the role of CEO from founder Ben Silbermann.

Pinterest's stock moved up by 4% in premarket trading on Wednesday, so it's clear that many of those who trade the stock agree with the positive view of the leadership change presented in the company's press release. However, despite the short-term appeal of broadening the skill set of the C-suite to include more direct experience with e-commerce, Pinterest is risking the most important aspect of what made it such a distinctive presence in the social media world to begin with.

Taking over for Silbermann is Bill Ready, who has done extensive work in e-commerce and strategic planning. Ready was chief operating officer of PayPal Holdings before moving to Alphabet's Google, where he served in an executive role in commerce, payments, and boosting user adoption.

Source Fool.com