Former Peloton billionaire CEO reveals he is ‘misplaced all his cash’
Peloton‘s former CEO has revealed that he has ‘lost all his money’ and has been forced to sell his possessions.
While Americans were trapped at home during the Covid lockdowns, Peloton bikes become a hot luxury commodity. Sales rose by 250 percent in the first quarter of 2020 and the company’s stock surged 400 percent over the course of the same year.
But with the relaxing of lockdown measures, Peloton fell from grace, wiping out much of its former-billionaire founder’s wealth in the process.
And then came a shock storyline in the Sex and the City reboot in 2021 which caused the company’s stock to plummet further.
‘I’ve lost all my money. I’ve had to sell almost everything in my life,’ John Foley, who co-founded Peloton in 2012, told the New York Post.
Former CEO John Foley co-founded Peloton in 2012 but left in February 2022
‘You know, at one point I had a lot of money on paper,’ the businessman lamented.
‘Not actually [in the bank], unfortunately,’ he explained.
Foley was worth $1.9 billion at Peloton’s peak, but his personal fortune slipped to $225 million by the time he stepped down as CEO in February 2022, according to Bloomberg.
Foley’s overnight billionaire status was lost by November 2021 but things took a turn for the worse just before Christmas of that year.
The first episode of the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That featured a storyline in which one of the main characters, Mr. Big, suffers a heart attack while riding his Peloton.
‘We were coming out of Covid. The stock was getting crushed. And then the Mr. Big thing happens … it was brutal,’ Foley recalled.
‘We really did think we were doing something special for the world. We really did care about our members. We cared about our shareholders, we cared about our employees.
‘And all of a sudden, we were just being trolled… everything was collapsing,’ he said.
Peloton laid off another 400 employees earlier this summer and has continued to shutter its bricks-and-mortar stores in an effort to cut costs.
Foley has been forced to scale back his expenses, including selling his $55 million East Hampton waterfront estate.
‘My family took it well,’ the 53-year-old told the Post. ‘My wife’s super supportive. My kids are probably better for it, if we’re keeping it real.’
Peloton’s reputation took a hit after the first episode of And Just Like that aired
Peloton bikes became a hot luxury commodity during the pandemic lockdowns
The company has now shuttered many of its bricks-and-mortar stores to cut costs
Foley’s new venture is a rug company called Ernesta which he hopes will revive his fortunes.
‘I’m working hard so that I can try to make money again… because I don’t have much left,’ he said.
Adding: ‘So I’m hungry and humble.’
Peloton is still tying to recover its pandemic-era luster, but lost another CEO in May, just two years after his appointment.
Despite recent sales increases its market cap now stands at $1.8 billion – down more than 90 percent from its 2021 highs.
