Longtime Amazon executive Tim Stone is leaving social media company Snap, the developer of Snapchat, after only eight months on the job.
In a regulatory filing on Tuesday afternoon, Snap said Stone resigned to pursue other opportunities and his exit was not related to any disagreement over the company’s accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices.
Stone will continue to serve as finance chief to assist in the search for his replacement, and his last day has not been determined, the company disclosed. He will stay at least through Snap’s February 5 fourth-quarter earnings call.
Last September, CFO named Stone, a former vice president of finance at Amazon, one of its 20 “CFOs to Watch.” The story said, “Snap’s operational efficiency and communication with Wall Street should benefit from Stone’s experience.”
However, while Snap’s financials improved slightly during Stone’s short tenure, with third-quarter revenue in particular increasing 43%, the company’s share price continued to fall. The shares closed at $6.54 on Tuesday but were down nearly 8% in after-hours trading by 6:15 p.m.
A memo from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel making the rounds on Twitter said Stone had made a big impact in a short time. The Los Angeles-based company and its employees had benefited from Stone’s “customer focus” and “the way he has encouraged all of us to operate as owners,” according to Spiegel.
Stone landed a hefty compensation package to come to Snap: a salary of $500,000 and restricted stock units of $20 million upon joining the company.
In Tuesday’s regulatory filing, Snap disclosed it would post fourth-quarter results in February that were “slightly favorable” to the top end of its previous guidance. That guidance, provided last October, said revenue would reach $355 million to $380 million. Snap also projected an adjusted EBITDA loss of $75 million to $100 million.
Home page photo: Getty Images