Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) stock reversed early gains on Tuesday morning as the company continues its executive search following CEO Carrie Wheeler’s departure. Shares fell over 4% in afternoon trading after climbing as much as 6% at the market open.
The real estate iBuyer meme stock has been on a tear since Wheeler announced her resignation on Friday, gaining more than 19% on Monday following the news and pushing the company’s six-month gain to more than 135%.
“When the Board of Directors asked me to take on this role at the end of 2022 … my mandate was clear: stabilize the company and do what was necessary to survive,” Wheeler said in the tweet announcing her departure, effective immediately. “The foundation is stronger, the vision is sharper, and the business is ready for what comes next.”
Opendoor announced on Friday that Shrisha Radhakrishna, the company’s current chief technology and product officer, will serve as president and “interim leader of Opendoor” as the iBuyer platform kicks off its executive search.
In the weeks leading up to her resignation, Wheeler faced immense pressure from investors who argued she was the wrong leader to shepherd Opendoor through its transition from a money-burning business to a stable and EBITDA-positive company. The calls were largely led by activist investor Eric Jackson, who kicked off the initial bull rally in Opendoor with an X thread laying out an $82 price target on a penny stock that was at the time worth less than $1.
“Carrie Wheeler is not the leader to take $OPEN to $82 and beyond,” Jackson posted a week before Wheeler’s resignation. “The board needs to act now. I’ve never been more convinced about a CEO needing to step aside now.”
Two days before Wheeler’s resignation, Opendoor co-founder Keith Rabois posted on X, “Not a single founder nor executive who built Opendoor to an IPO or billions of free cash flow or $18 B of market cap supports Carrie as CEO nor [board member Pueo Keffer].”
The change in leadership comes after a tumultuous run for the company, which has seen its price quickly climb from under $1 to more than $4 as of Tuesday morning as the retail investor community bought into hype around a potential turnaround. Mentions of Opendoor on the meme stock-centric subreddit r/WallStreetBets exploded in the wake of Jackson’s original Twitter thread.
“Stocks like Opendoor Technologies … have seen huge advances on high volume because of their ability to capture the public’s imagination,” Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick said. “And a feature of the current market environment is that once the public gets involved in a high volatility, high volume situation, these situations can persist with a life of their own.”