Just days after announcing that it would be cutting 16% of its full-time staff, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, announced the departure of CFO Derek Andersen. His last earnings call will be May 9, and his last day with the company will be May 8.
Snap CEO Even Spiegel made the announcement on the company’s blog and also shared the news with staff.
As per Spiegel: “Derek has been a great partner to me and to our business and has helped us navigate some of the most challenging periods in our history, including the pandemic, ad platform transition, and several macroeconomic shocks. He has always done so with a keen eye to Snap’s long term prosperity and a commitment to doing what is best for our business.”
Andersen has worked with Snap for nearly eight years, and has played a key role in transitioning the platform into a viable business, through improved structure within its ads offering and other commercial deals.
Andersen will be succeeded by Doug Hott, another long-time Snap employee, who will be tasked with overseeing the company’s next big shift as it looks to navigate through stagnant growth and the launch of its new AR glasses.
Which are really Snap’s next big hope. Snap’s ad revenue is growing, but the app’s user growth has stalled and even declined in key markets, with daily active usage in the U.S. and EU shrinking, according to its most recent performance update.
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That could limit its expanded opportunity, and with more regions considering teen social media bans, that could have a major impact on the platform’s future prospects.
As such, Snap really needs its AR glasses to be a hit, but early indications suggest that the device will struggle against similar AR and artificial intelligence-powered offerings from companies including Meta and Apple.
If Snap’s AR glasses don’t generate buzz, then the company will have to go back to the drawing board. And again, with restrictions growing on teen usage, Snap’s main audience market, the prospects are not great, which could lead to some major challenges for the business.
In addition to Andersen’s departure, Spiegel announced related internal changes designed to “create a more streamlined organization that is directly aligned to support our team, community, and partners.
