Barry McCarthy

The co-founder of exercise brand Peloton will step down from leading The Company as it plans to cut thousands of jobs.

John Foley , chief executive of The Firm for 10 Years , will be replaced by Barry Mccarthy , the former chief financial officer of Spotify.

Peloton also confirmed it will cut about 2,800 jobs globally due to a drop in demand for its products.

Amazon, Nike and Apple are rumoured to be interested in bidding for Peloton.

Peloton, which pairs its equipment with streaming and live exercise classes, had seen sales soar of its bikes and treadmills during the pandemic, but the post-lockdown return to gyms has left The Firm worth less than a fifth of its peak $50bn valuation.

Mr Foley said Mr McCarthy was the " right leader to take The Company into its next phase of growth". Mr Foley will become Peloton's executive chairman.

The Change in leadership comes amid takeover speculation, with investment firm Blackwells Capital last month calling for Mr Foley to be removed from his post and The Business to be put up For Sale .

Blackwells said Peloton and its customer base are " extremely attractive" to companies like Nike, Apple, Disney and Sony, that are looking to boost their presence in the home, health and wellness spaces.

Mr Foley, that The Company was " open to exploring any opportunity that could create value for Peloton shareholders" but declined to comment further.

On Tuesday, Peloton also set out plans to cut costs including axing around 20% of corporate staff numbers.

Mr Foley said the decision to make staff redundant was " not taken lightly". The Company expects its restructuring program to cost about $130m, which will be related to severance packages.

The Company also said it was " winding down" the development of the Peloton Output Park - a factory in Ohio where it hoped to make its exercise equipment and create 2,000 jobs.

Shelving The Plant will cost $60m.

Aside from demand falling for its products, there have also been recent PR disasters for The Company , including when TV characters had

A fictional character in the Sex and The City reboot And Just Like That died of a Heart Attack using a Peloton machine, and there was also a brush with death in Billions.

After the And Just Like That death, Peloton tried to recover the PR narrative with a parody advert featuring Chris Noth alive and well, and benefitting from exercise. But that backfired after allegations of sexual assault, which he denied.

Meanwhile in August the US Department of Justice and The Department of Homeland Security said they were investigating The Company after a child was pulled under one of its treadmills and killed, while other customers had reported injuries.

Weeks after the reports, Peloton recalled 125,000 of its Tread+ running machines after initially saying there was " no reason" to stop using The Machine before changing its stance.

Amazon has declined to confirm or deny whether it is considering making an offer for Peloton.

Analysts at Wedbush Securities have said they expect other bidders to emerge, with a " Apple vs. Amazon/Nike/Disney for Peloton potentially on the cards".

" We would be shocked if Apple is not aggressively involved in this potential deal process, " they said.

Analysts have estimated that Peloton could be valued between $12bn and $15bn, depending on timing and The Competition .

Source of news: bbc.com