On past Wednesday, Share of Snapchat Inc dropped by 9 percent in early trading all because of the resignation of its finance chief announced by the company in a filing with SEC on Tuesday, making it a departure of second CFO in a row in one year since Snapchat’s redesign efforts which tracked much of a criticism.
After spending two decades with Amazon.com Inc, Tim Stone had joined Snapchat in May last year as Chief Finance Officer and replaced Andrew Vollero, a person who took the company public in 2017.
Stone’s exit, to which many of the Wall Street analyst are terming as “materially negative”, is not only a loss of a seasoned professional but with that, hiring and retaining top executives will become more tougher for Snapchat.
In the past year, for a tough competition from Facebook Inc’s Instagram and gradually declining users, a series of top-level executives left the social media firm.
The company’s execution and ability to compete and survive in the market will be slowed down with Stone’s departure that will be putting negative impact on the company, believed Summit Insights Group analyst Jonathan Kees.
Snapchat’s Senior management team, which otherwise in less experienced, was more reliable with the presence of Stone in it, Kees added.
28-year old Evan Spiegal has been leading the Snapchat as Chief Executive Officer and after the company’s launch on New York Stock Exchange almost two years ago; it has lost more than 65 percent of its value.
Imran Khan, ex-Chief Strategy Officer, left the company in the past year followed by exit of Stuart Bowers who was vice president of monetizing engineering.
In late November, another top executive of Snapchat, Kristin Southey, vice president of investor relations, also quit silently remaining on the payroll of the company just for four months, as reported news website Cheddar on last Tuesday.
