Latest news with #BloombergTech
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
CEO Says Peloton Not For Sale As Peloton Repowered Marketplace Debuts
Peloton stock soared during the pandemic but its share price has been downhill ever since. (Photo by ... More) Peloton has launched an equipment and accessories resale marketplace called Peloton Repowered, as the company boss also slapped a 'not for sale' sign over the business. Speaking at a Bloomberg event today, CEO Peter Stern insisted that he had not been brought in to find a buyer for the company but instead is looking to capitalize on new and existing customers with a range of initiatives, including the growing trend towards pre-used merchandise. Initially eligible for sellers located in the Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. metro areas, the marketplace will then expand nationally in the coming months and has been created to connect buyers and sellers in the same metro area, Peloton said. In its testing phase it will launch in beta and until there is enough inventory will only allow users to list items, with the facility to buy and sell to be introduced in the next few weeks. The platform will enable members to post their used Peloton equipment and gear and set a price with help from a generative AI tool, the company said, although sellers will have the final say on how much to list the item for. Peloton Repowered sellers will receive 70% of the sale price and a discount on new Peloton workout equipment, adding to the discounted products it sells, which already include refurbished equipment, offering a peer-to-peer pre-owned option. The sellers' discount on new Peloton equipment will range from around $200 to $600, depending on what type of new equipment is purchased, while Peloton Repowered buyers will receive a reduced used activation fee for the equipment they purchase at $45, which compares with its typical used equipment activation fee of $95. Buyers will be able to see the equipment's history on the listing and have the option to get the item delivered for an extra fee, Peloton said. The Peloton Repowered platform works through the Archive platform, which has worked with fashion brands including The North Face, Dr. Martens and New Balance and Peloton said previously it had started to see a 'meaningful increase' in the number of new members who bought used Bikes or Treads from peer-to-peer markets such as Facebook Marketplace. The launch of Peloton's new resale platform follows third-quarter earnings released last month that showed a 13% year-on-year fall in revenue to $624 million and a wider-than-expected net loss of nearly $48 million. Peloton ended the third quarter with 2.9 million paid fitness subscribers, down 6% from a year prior. Peter Stern, president and CEO of Peloton, during the Bloomberg Tech conference in San ... More Franciscoyesterday. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Peloton's stock value is a fraction of the peak in 2021, when enforced pandemic lockdowns led to a surge in home exercise and rocketing equipment and subscription sales. CEO Peter Stern – who was co-founder of Apple Fitness+ – took the helm in January and been trying to revamp the company, although he has so far been unable to reverse value declines which have seen the stock price fall by over a fifth since the start of the year. Speaking at a Bloomberg event yesterday, Stern stressed that he had no intention of selling the company as he reaffirmed his commitment to reviving the bike and running workouts firm and keeping it "a standalone company." "I was not hired to sell this company,' he said. "I was hired to bring this company back to growth, reinvigorate it, and that is happening." He said that Peloton must evolve into a more personalized coach powered by AI, while expanding its reach through retail, international markets, and travel, including a stronger presence in hotel gyms. The company has implemented several initiatives to steady the business, including 15% job cuts announced last year and shifting its focus to subscription sales over hardware. The company last month also initiated a pricing strategy to offer discounted equipment rates for eligible educators, healthcare workers, first responders and military personnel in the U.S. Peloton Repowered also seems to play to Stern's assertion that the company must balance between hardware and software: "Our future is not to try to scale the app at the expense of that equipment business," he said
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Google's parent Alphabet to keep hiring engineers despite AI advances: Sundar Pichai
Alphabet Inc.'s Sundar Pichai said his company will keep expanding its engineering ranks at least into 2026, stressing human talent remains key even as Google 's parent ramps up AI investments. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, Pichai said he will continue to invest in engineering in the near future. US tech leaders like Microsoft Corp. have trimmed more staff this year, reflecting in part the enormous investments needed to ensure leadership in AI. The firings have stoked fears about the technology replacing certain job functions. Google itself has conducted rounds of layoffs in recent years to free up resources. 'I expect we will grow from our current engineering base even into next year, because it allows us to do more with the opportunity space,' Pichai said in conversation with Bloomberg's Emily Chang. 'I just view this as making engineers dramatically more productive, getting a lot of the mundane aspects out of what they do.' Still, Pichai presented a vision of AI that was at once optimistic about the technology's possibilities and sober-minded about some of its present limitations. While AI excels in areas like coding, the models continue to make basic mistakes, Pichai said. 'So are we currently on an absolute path to AGI? I don't think anyone can say for sure,' Pichai said. He was referring to artificial general intelligence: the dream of building AI that can perform on par with humans. As Google incorporates more AI into its search engine, publishers have sounded the alarm about how the company's AI-generated answers deprive them of traffic. Pichai stressed that the company remains committed to sending traffic to the web. 'Compared to most companies in the world, we take care to design an experience which is going to showcase links,' Pichai said. 'We took a long time testing AI Overviews and prioritised approaches which resulted in high quality traffic out. I'm confident that many years from now that's how Google will work.' Pichai has led Google since 2015, when he took the reins from Google co-founder Larry Page pledging to focus even more on AI. Asked about what qualities the public can expect to see in the company's next CEO, Pichai quipped: 'Whoever is running it will have an extraordinary AI companion.' At the same conference on Wednesday, Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said that there's been a cultural shift in the Silicon Valley and it is now more palatable for the tech industry to support the US military's efforts. The company announced a partnership with defense contractor Anduril Industries Inc. last week to develop products for the US military, including an artificial intelligence-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features. Anduril's co-founder Trae Stephens and other industry leaders such as Perplexity AI Inc. Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas will join the Bloomberg Tech summit on Thursday.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Anduril Deploys Tech Along Southern Border
Anduril Industries Inc. Executive Chairman Trae Stephens says its technology is being used across the southern border. "We are deployed across somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the entire southwest border at this point." Stephens speaks to Tom Giles at the Bloomberg Tech summit.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Perplexity AI CEO Pans Google's AI Rollout and Assistant Product
Perplexity AI Inc. Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas issued a broadside against Google 's artificial intelligence products and strategy, marking some of the AI search startup's strongest criticisms of its rival. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech summit in San Francisco Thursday, Srinivas panned Google's AI assistant as a 'terrible product' and also claimed the tech giant essentially introduces the same artificial intelligence feature year after year, without actually shipping it to users.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
About 20% of Tech Startups Worth More Than $1 Billion Will Fail, Accel Says
There are more than 1,000 technology unicorns, meaning venture backed companies worth $1 billion or more, but at least 1 in 5 are likely to fail, Rich Wong, a partner at venture capital firm Accel Partners. 'I think maybe out of that thousand, 20% fully die. The end,' Wong said Thursday at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco.
