Is Peloton an Apple or a GoPro?

Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty
William D. Cohan
March 2, 2022

Call me crazy but I’m feeling some sympathy for Barry McCarthy, who has been the new C.E.O. of Peloton since February 9. He’s got a brutal assignment ahead of him: turning around the fortunes of the once high-flying exercise equipment company with the hyped-up mission to use “technology and design to connect the world through fitness” and “empowering people to be the best version of themselves anywhere, anytime.” Let’s face it, that’s a tall order during the best of circumstances, let alone the one McCarthy inherited. Peloton, which was once worth more than $50 billion during the height of the workout-from-home-forever depths of the pandemic, is now worth around $9 billion. Its stock is down 83 percent from its all-time high on Christmas Eve 2020. In 2021, Peloton was the worst performing stock in the Nasdaq 300 Index.