Snap shares plummeted more than 11 percent in premarket trading Wednesday following the company’s announcement Tuesday that its chief financial officer is resigning after less than a year on the job.
Snap disclosed CFO Tim Stone’s resignation in an SEC filing Tuesday, saying he “has confirmed that this transition is not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices (financial or otherwise).”
Stone, who started as CFO in May 2018, follows a host of other executives who have fled the company. In the past year, executive departures from Snap included chief strategy officer Imran Khan and vice president of communications Mary Ritti, previous finance head Andrew Vollero and vice president of monetization engineering Stuart Bowers. Stone was expected to breathe new life into the company, with Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter saying his hire, among other factors, showed Snap’s “increased focus on shareholder value.”
But instead, the stock’s value has continued to decline almost 50 percent in the past 6 months, leaving it with a market value of about $8.5 billion. Stone’s $20 million worth of restricted stock units were set to vest over four years. When he joined Snap from Amazon, where he had most recently served as vice president of finance, he was offered an annual salary of $500,000.
Snap said Stone plans to “pursue other opportunities” and will continue in the role through the company’s full year 2018 financial results announcement, according to the filing. His last day has not yet been decided, the company said.
Snap included one upside included in Tuesday’s filing, saying its quarterly results would be “slightly favorable” to the upper end of its guidance when it reports on February 5. Snap predicted in its Q3 outlook between $355 million and $380 million for the next quarter, and adjusted losses between $100 million and $75 million, but had also warned investors that the Snapchat app would continue to lose daily active users.
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