By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Peloton stock (NASDAQ:PTON) traded 1.5% lower in premarket Monday following comments from its new CEO ruling out a sale of the fitness equipment maker.
Instead of a sale, Barry McCarthy, who took over from co-founder John Foley last week, told the Financial Times the company will expand its content, expand to new geographies and widen its product portfolio.
According to McCarthy, “where the magic lives” at Peloton is on its digital screens and not its connected bikes or treadmills.
Reports of the company being a takeover target have circled last two weeks after the stock lost over 80% of its market cap from a peak of $50 billion last year. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Sony (NYSE:SONY), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Nike (NYSE:NKE) were among those named as potential suitors. The stock has gained nearly 27% this month alone on those reports.
“If I thought it was likely that the business was going to be acquired in the foreseeable future, I can’t imagine it would be a rational act to move across the country,” he told FT. McCarthy is moving to New York from California.
“There are lots of other things I could be doing with my time that are quite lucrative than hanging out with a business that’s about to be sold,” he told the paper.