The Great Executive Shuffle of 2019 continued on Wednesday, with Expedia Group announcing the surprise departure of its CEO and CFO after clashing with the company's board over the travel company's direction. Chief Executive Mark Okerstrom and Chief Financial Officer Alan Pickerill will resign their posts effective immediately, with Chairman Barry Diller and Vice Chair Peter Kern managing the company while a new leadership team is chosen.
In a statement, Diller said that Expedia's reorganization, spearheaded by Okerstrom and Pickerill, was "sound in concept" but resulted in the company's disappointing third-quarter earnings results. Diller said the board "strongly [believes] the Company can accelerate growth in 2020" under new management.
Shares of Expedia ($EXPE) shot up more than 5 percent on the news. In contrast, shares of Alphabet ($GOOGL) moved only marginally higher on Tuesday's announcement that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were stepping aside and naming Sundar Pichai CEO of Alphabet.
From Expedia to Google, the year has been notable for how many chief executives have resigned, quit, or been forced out. It's happening across sectors like fast food (McDonald's), retail and apparel (Nike, Under Armour, Gap), cloud computing and enterprise software (SAP, ServiceNow), e-commerce (eBay). Some of those executives actually took each other's jobs, with Bill McDermott departing SAP for ServiceNow, and John Donahoe (who used to run eBay) leaving ServiceNow for Nike.
Even Expedia's rival in travel booking, Trivago, lost its CEO last month. And that's not to mention the collapse of WeWork, which forced out its founder and CEO over a disastrous IPO attempt. More than 170 chief executives left just in the month of October, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
There is no single reason for the C-suite exodus. Some, like Steve Easterbrook at McDonald's, were fired over misconduct. Others, like Mark Parker at Nike and Adam Neumann at WeWork, departed amid other scandals. Still others, like Kevin Plank at Under Armour, resigned under the pressure of struggling businesses.
But for some of these executives, their influence in the companies they led doesn't follow them out the revolving door. Brin and Page of Google, for instance, still hold a majority of the voting power in Alphabet, about 25 percent a piece, according to regulatory filings. Because of how many businesses ー particular in Silicon Valley ー structure their Class A and Class B shares, a CEO can step down, but still never really be gone. Just ask WeWork, which had to pay Neumann $1.7 billion to give up his voting rights and walk away.
Don Basile, CEO, Monsoon Blockchain & Founder of Bitcoin Latinum, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why we're seeing major crypto investors look to purchase expensive pieces of art, and discusses what the NFT space could look like in the not-too-distant future.
Jack Constantine, chief digital officer and product inventor at Lush, joined Cheddar to talk about the cosmetic company's mass exodus from major social media platforms TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, in the wake of recent reports that Instagram specifically had negative impacts on teen girls. He noted that with teenage girls being a large part of its consumer base and audience, Lush had a responsibility to market its company on outlets that prioritize mental wellbeing. "For us, we've always been a social brand, and it started to feel that social media was no longer offering what we felt we wanted to gain from it," he said. "And then obviously when you add that to the damage that it's causing, it just feels like a combination that we can't continue on with." The company also pulled out of social media platforms in 2019.
Jon Lowen, Co-Founder of Surfside, joined Wake Up With Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss Uber's partnership with cannabis retailer Tokyo Smoke, as it's the first time a cannabis merchant has been listed on UberEats across all of its global markets.
Jack Dorsey resigned from his post as CEO of the social media company on Monday and will be replaced by chief technology officer Parag Agrawal. Mitch Rubin, portfolio manager at RiverPark Long/Short Opportunity Fund, joined Cheddar to break down the move and what it means for investors in both Twitter and Square, the payment company that Dorsey also helms. "For the long-term, I think this is very positive news for both companies," he said. Rubin also talked about growing competition in the social media space and why Twitter continues to lag behind other major players.
Jack Dorsey is officially out as Twitter's CEO. Dorsey said in a statement that the platform is ready to move away from its founders and now will be led by current CTO Parag Agrawal.
The ocean is an important topic when it comes to the climate. It plays a vital role in shaping our environment, with rising sea levels causing a 35% increase in natural disasters around the world, affecting 1.7 billion people. Dr. Sylvia Earle has been called perhaps the greatest advocate our oceans have ever had, with Time magazine dubbing her its first 'hero of the planet' and the Library of Congress naming her a living legend. She is also the founder of Mission Blue, an organization that inspires action to explore and protect the ocean. Dr. Earle joined Cheddar Climate for more on the importance of caring for the ocean and its impact on climate change.
This holiday season, e-commerce sales are expected to hit 207 billion dollars, with17 percent of that chunk will occuring between the days of the deals - black friday and cyber monday. Deren Baker, CEO of edge by ascential, joins Cheddar News to give a Cyber Monday preview.
