Peloton Could Go Out of Business

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
Peloton Could Go Out of Business

© Kim Grosz / iStock via Getty Images

Quarterly revenue at Peloton Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: PTON) was so poor that the stock plunged and CEO Barry McCarthy was fired. However, the real description of the company’s problems was in the fine print: “We are mindful of the timing of our debt maturities, which consist of convertible notes and a term loan, and we know this is also on the minds of our shareholders.” Peloton is low on cash, and there is no reason to believe that the problem can be solved, particularly as its business falls apart.

Revenue dropped from $749 million in the year-ago period to $717 million. Peloton posted yet another loss, $167 million compared to a loss of $275 million a year ago. The company had $794 million of cash on its balance sheet. At the current burn rate, that could last as little as a year. It has a convertible loan of $988 million and a term loan of $681 million.

Peloton has tried everything available to turn around its business. It has offered used versions of its products. It has set up a subscription business. And it sells its equipment in such outliers as Dick’s Sporting Goods. (Check out the fastest-growing brands in each state this year.)

The truth of the matter is that Pelton’s expensive exercise equipment sold well during the worst of the pandemic when people could not go to gyms. Once people could return to gyms, the demand for its products fell. And there is no way to regain that customer base.

Peloton’s market cap is down to $1.1 billion, which is too high.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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