A speaker manufacturer Sonos We are seeing some significant changes. Patrick Spence, the company's chief executive (pictured above), has left the company after eight years on the job. Tom Conrad, co-founder of Pandora and a Sonos board member, has stepped in as interim CEO, effective today.
Last year was complicated for the speaker manufacturer. The company released a major update to its software platform, but it was marred by bugs and removed some long-standing features.
This can be a problem for any brand, but for a brand like Sonos, it's a major problem because it's known for the reliability of its products. The main promise of Sonos speakers is that you can buy multiple speakers and they work together seamlessly in rooms and music services.
As a result of the buggy update, the company has been tweaking its software platform and rolling out updates to bring back features and make everything more reliable. But because he couldn't get ahead of the bad news, the products were delayed and sales fell.
Recently, Sonos has released more new products and shipped more new products. Sonos Ace headphones versus Arc Ultra sound barBut its reputation seems tarnished and hard to recover — sales of Ace headphones are; Disappointing.
In August, the company out of work At the time, it had 100 employees, or about 6% of its workforce. Revenue fell 16% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023.
The company's interim CEO, Tom Conrad, has a long career in technology. After founding Pandora, He joined Snap as VP of Product; He was also the product officer of video streaming service Quibi for a while. He recently created Zerofasting app,
“I think everyone would agree that I let a lot of people down this year. As we've seen, getting a few important things right (Arc Ultra and Ace are noteworthy products!) is when our customers' alarms don't go off. Their kids can't hear their playlist at breakfast; Their environment is inadequate. Do not burn, Or can't pause the music in time to answer the ringing doorbell,” Conrad wrote in an email to Sonos employees obtained by Conrad. The Verge.
As Conrad's new title suggests, the Sonos board is looking for the company's next permanent CEO. Shared by Sonos. It is currently up 3.3% in premarket trading.