Peloton reported on Thursday a 172 percent spike in sales during its fourth quarter. While the company's high-tech exercise bike has become ubiquitous in the COVID era, COO and co-founder Tom Cortese said the sales were just a continuation of its rapid rise.
"As far as we're concerned, we've been on a path since we put the first Peloton product in the first home in 2014, where we've seen almost a doubling of the company each year since then," Peloton COO and co-founder Tom Cortese told Cheddar. "We see what's happened with COVID as just an acceleration of the trend that has already been very well in existence."
Sales jumped from $223 million in the fourth quarter of last year to $607 million in its 2020 Q4, exceeding the company's own forecast of $582.5 million.
The New York City-based company's confidence isn't letting up either, with a forecast of more than $720 million in sales in the first quarter of next year.
Peloton's rise has been so rapid that it's struggled at times to keep up with consumer demand, in part because the company has kept much of its delivery operations in-house.
In a letter to shareholders, the company said that a resurgence in COVID-19 cases has created an "imbalance of supply and demand in many geographies, causing continued elongated order-to-delivery windows for our customers" that isn't likely to be remedied until Q2 2021.
"We've been investing in our own end-to-end supply chain for quite some time now," Cortese said. "We do a great number of our deliveries through our own trucks, our own staff, and we've scaled that operation up massively in all of the markets where we operate."
In addition to the roll-out of two new bikes, the original Peloton bike is set for a significant price cut — from $2,245 to $1,895 — potentially leading to even more demand.
"We have been able to see great efficiencies in the scale that we've created, and we thought the best thing that we could do with those efficiencies is pass them along to our customers," Cortese said.
In response to rumors of a new "strength" product line — which was hinted at in a recent job posting — Cortese maintained that the company would not be resting on its laurels.
"What I can confirm is that we are not sitting idly by," he said. "We've spent the last eight and a half, nine years building this company into what it is today."
Wealthfront’s CFO Alan Iberman talks the $2.05B IPO and the major moment for robo banking as the company bets on AI, automation, and “self-driving money."
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
