Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving after software update disaster

Some changes Sonos. The company’s chief executive Patrick Spence (pictured above) is leaving the company after eight years in the job. Pandora co-founder and Sonos board member Tom Conrad will take over as interim CEO starting today.

2024 has been a complicated year for the speaker manufacturer. The company released a major update to its software platform, which was crippled by bugs and removed some long-standing features.

While this can be problematic for any brand, it’s a major one for a brand like Sonos. It is a brand known for the reliability of its products. The main promise of Sonos speakers is that you can buy multiple speakers and they will work together seamlessly across rooms and music services.

As a result, the company has spent a ton of time tweaking the software platform and releasing software updates to add back features and make everything work more reliably. Products were delayed and sales declined.

Recently, the company started shipping new products again with the release Sonos Ace headphones and Arc Ultra soundbar. But it seems that the company’s reputation is tarnished and it will be difficult to restore it — sales of Ace headphones have decreased. disappointing.

Company in August was fired 100 employees, or about 6% of the company’s workforce at the time. Revenue fell 16% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

The company’s interim CEO, Tom Conrad, has had a long career in technology. After founding Pandora, he joined Snap as VP of Product. He was also the Chief Product Office for the short-lived video streaming service Quibi. Recently he created Zerofasting program.

“I think we’ll all agree that we’ve disappointed a lot of people this year. As we’ve seen, fixing some important things (Arc Ultra and Ace are notable products!) isn’t enough when our customers’ alarms don’t go off, their kids don’t hear their playlist at breakfast, and they don’t cover their surroundings. Don’t turn it on or they won’t be able to stop the music in time to answer the jingling doorbell,” Conrad wrote in an email to Sonos employees. The Verge.

As Conrad’s new title suggests, Sonos’ board is looking for the company’s next permanent CEO. Sonos shares currently up 3.3% in premarket trading.