Activist investors at Blackwells Capital aren’t happy with Peloton’s recent changes and are once again calling on the company to explore an acquisition from Apple. In a new report released this week, Blackwells Capital says that Peloton hasn’t made any substantive progress under new CEO Barry McCarthy, and in fact, “shareholders are worse off now than before.”
This is the second time Blackwells Capital has released a scathing review of Peloton. The first presentation came prior to Peloton’s leadership shakeup, which included Barry McCarthy replacing John Foley as the CEO. Blackwells, however, isn’t happy with the changes Peloton has announced so far.
The Blackwells report, which you can view in full right here, includes a detailed overview criticizing McCarthy’s “first 60 days at Peloton.” The investors say that the company has not made adequate management changes and “continues to make strategic missteps” in regard to product roll-outs, quality control, and cost-cutting.
After its in-depth criticism of the current state of Peloton, Blackwells concludes that the “best option is to sell Peloton.” This reiterates what Blackwells said earlier this year, and the firm continues to view Apple as one of the best targets.
The benefits of Apple acquiring Peloton, according to Blackwells, would be:
- Apple becomes the category leader in digital health & wellness
- Immediate ability to bundle with 100 million Apple watch users
- Gains significant customer data edge to use for applicability across the Apple ecosystem
- Through its preexisting health, wellness, content and lifestyle segments, Apple has a robust opportunity to cross-sell and bundle content offerings
- Strategically Defensive Asset: Prevents other big tech / health and wellness competitors from gaining a trophy subscription fitness asset
As we’ve said before, however, just because investors may call on Peloton to consider a sale to a company like Apple, there’s no indication either company is actually interested.
Read more:
- Apple should be ‘aggressively involved’ in Peloton acquisition talks to boost Apple Watch and Fitness+, says analyst
- Peloton slashing jobs and replacing CEO as potential acquisition rumors continue
- Peloton now sells Apple Watch bands; is it cozying up to Apple under its new leadership?
- Peloton now lets you use Apple Watch as a heart rate monitor, no GymKit required
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