What happened
Shares of Peloton Interactive (PTON 4.79%) are tanking once again, down 10.3% as of 11:30 a.m. ET. It comes even after Amazon (AMZN 3.28%) said yesterday the Peloton Bike sold on the e-commerce platform was one of the best-sellers from its Top 100 list during the two-day Prime Early Access Sale.
Peloton, though, has also been sued by a former instructor for $1.8 million for discrimination and is experiencing the fallout from revelations company founder and former executive chairman John Foley suffered margin calls on loans taken out on company stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Peloton is trying new ways to reach more people and it recently opened a storefront on Amazon. It was a timely expansion of its online presence as Amazon sought to spur early Christmas sales by having a repeat of its annual Prime Day sales extravaganza before the traditional launch of the holiday shopping period.
While Amazon never reveals detailed sales information, it does provide broad strokes for items that sold well on the site. The entry-level Peloton Bike was listed among the Top 100 deals. The connected exercise bike that regularly retails for $1,445 was featured as being 15% off with delivery. Certain accessories were discounted at 25% off.
There was no indication, though, of just how many Bikes or accessories were actually sold during the event.
Now what
Peloton, though, has a host of problems confronting it, including slowing sales and shrinking class engagement. There's also a new lawsuit that could paint the connected fitness company in a bad light. An instructor says he was routinely targeted by an executive for being Irish and was summarily dismissed without reason.
Foley cut all ties with the company in September and it was subsequently revealed he had put a large number of shares up as collateral for loans he took out, only to see their value plummet, causing a margin call.
