By
Steve Muchoki
September 20th, 2023
Shares of image-sharing service provider Pinterest advanced by over 5% on news that the company’s long-term CEO Ben Silbermann is stepping down.
At premarket trading, Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) is currently up 3.71% to $20.43. It appears the company is set for a rally as it has gathered over a 4% gain in the last five days. Additionally, the image-sharing service provider pumped more than 4% over the past month.
Pinterest Announces New CEO
Pinterest said CEO Silbermann would exit his role to occupy the newly created position of Executive Chairman. Meanwhile, online commerce expert Bill Ready will become the new CEO as well as a member of the Board of Directors. The changes will take effect as of the 29th of June.
Before joining Pinterest, the new CEO served as President of Commerce, Payments & Next Billion Users at Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Ready was also in charge of Google’s vision, strategy, and delivery of its commerce product. With broad knowledge in different areas, he was also in more than two positions at PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) for over 6 years.
Since its inception in Match 2010, Pinterest has built a large customer base with more than 40 million monthly active users. People have saved over 300 billion Pins for different purposes. Its advertising business generated strong cash flow and double revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ready expressed gratitude to Silbermann and the Pinterest team on his LinkedIn page. He wrote about his confidence in Pinterest to become a 100-year company. Silbermann, on the other hand, said in the official announcement:
“Building Pinterest with such a wildly talented, kind and creative team has been the gift of a lifetime. Today, interest inspires hundreds of millions of people with ideas for every aspect of their lives. We’ve built a growing global business that puts the well-being of our users at the core of everything we do.”
Pinterest’s Former CEO Welcomes Bill Ready
The former CEO said Pinterest is focusing on serving pinners more as the company opens a new chapter. He acknowledged that Ready is a builder with experience in commerce and payments, and a perfect fit for the role. He specifically said Ready will be an “outstanding CEO.”
Pinterest Board Lead Independent Director Andrea Wishom also welcomed Ready to the Pinterest team, saying:
“Bill is a proven leader, whose experience in payments, product development, and shopping uniquely positions him to take Pinterest to its next phase of growth. It is a testament to the remarkable vision and leadership of Ben that we are able to welcome Bill, who shares similar values. The Board and I look forward to working with them both to accelerate Pinterest’s strategy of bringing everyone the inspiration to create the life they love.”