In May 2024, speaker manufacturer Sonos released a major overhaul of its bug-ridden app, which was widely criticized by users. The failed software rollout not only hurt Sonos’ sales in the following months but also caused its CEO to lose his job eight months later. Chief Executive Officer Patrick Spence, a 12-year veteran of the Goleta, Calif.-based company, announced his resignation today (Jan. 13). He will be replaced by interim CEO Tom Conrad, who has served as an independent board member since 2017 while the company searches for a permanent successor.
Sonos speakers are popular for their sound quality and ability to create multi-room audio systems. The company’s disastrous app launch was positioned as a revamp and derided as worsening the user experience. In addition to containing bugs, the app also removed long-standing features like sleep timers and playlist editing.
Although Spence issued a public apology shortly after the app’s release and promised to fix the issue through gradual software updates, Sonos apparently failed to recover from the poor launch. In the most recently reported quarter (July to September), sales fell 16% from a year earlier to $255.4 million, resulting in a net loss of $53 million. Sonos shares have fallen about 24% since the app overhaul was launched. The company currently has a market capitalization of $1.7 billion.
The ordeal was “painful for our customers and painful for everyone in the company,” Spence said in October when he announced a new set of commitments from Sonos to address the root causes of its app failures. Spence, who previously worked at Blackberry for 14 years, first joined Sonos in 2012 as chief commercial officer and later became CEO in 2017.
New interim CEO Conrad previously led digital health platform Zero Longevity Science. According to The Verge, he acknowledged the speaker maker’s recent troubles in his first letter to employees. “I think we can all agree that we have let too many people down this year,” he wrote. “As we see it, when our customers’ alarms don’t go off, their kids can’t hear their playlists at breakfast, and their surroundings don’t turn on, they can’t pause their music in time to answer the buzzing doorbell.”
Conrad has a long history in the media streaming business. He previously served as chief technology officer of music streaming company Pandora, vice president of product at Snapchat parent company Snap (SNAP) and chief product officer of mobile streaming company Quibi.
In his new role at Sonos, Conrad will receive a monthly base salary of $175,000 and $2.6 million in restricted stock units, according to a regulatory filing. Spence will provide consulting services through the end of June to oversee the CEO transition and will be paid $7,500 per month during that time and will receive a $1.8 million severance package.
“Tom will be tasked with improving the core Sonos experience for our customers while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance,” company chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.
