Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has stepped down after eight years. Spence had received widespread criticism over the company’s failed 2024 app redesign.
Bloomberg reports the company has appointed board member and former Snap and Pandora executive Tom Conrad as interim CEO, effective immediately, while the search for a permanent replacement is conducted.
In May 2024, Sonos launched a redesigned app, which sought to modernize the application and adding support for the company’s first headphones, the Sonos Ace.
The app’s release was spoiled due to widespread technical issues and the loss of several popular features, including alarms, sleep times, and more. Users also reported issues with the app, including connectivity problems, interface confusion, and lag. Some users reported that their Sonos system had been rendered unusable.
The company’s revenue subsequently declined by 16% in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024, and Sonos’s stock price fell approximately 13% following the app update’s release.
In October, Spence issued a public video apology, saying that the company is going to fix its app problems, while also building a better Sonos experience. Unfortunately, the damage to the company’s reputation proved difficult to repair.
In September, we reported that while developing the app, Sonos made some cost cutting measures, which included laying off some employees, which also led to internal restructuring, which the report says “caused chaos,” as it split up teams that had worked together for years. As the app’s launch deadline neared, employees are said to have “forcefully” urged company executives to delay the app’s launch because it was far from being ready for prime time.
Former Sonos employees claimed that instead of ensuring that equipment owned by longtime Sonos customers continued to work properly, the company instead focuses on keeping investors happy and attracting new customers. Many employees were afraid to push back harder, due to fears that they would be terminated.
The app, which launched in May, was riddled with bugs and lacked many key features from the previous app, leading to a large outcry from Sonos customers. Sonos has since focused most of its corporate efforts on fixing the app and restoring goodwill from customers.
