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Snapchat’s CFO Is Resigning After Less Than A Year

Snapchat’s CFO Is Resigning After Less Than A Year

It was a surprise. Snapchat’s CFO, Tim Stone, announced his resignation after less than a year on the job and the company’s stocks immediately nosedived nearly 14 percent.

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Stone joined Snapchat in May 2018 and no exit date has been confirmed.

Snap disclosed Stone’s resignation in a recent SEC filing, saying he “has confirmed that this transition is not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices (financial or otherwise),” CNBC reported.

But according to the Financial Times (FT), there was a “personality clash” between Stone and CEO Evan Spiegel.

The has been a rash of executive departures from Snap in the past year. Imran Khan, Snap’s chief strategy officer; Vice President of Communications Mary Ritti; previous finance head Andrew Vollero; and Vice President of Monetization Engineering Stuart Bowers all left the company.

The company had hoped Stone would help improve the financial situation. That, however, did not happen. Instead, “the stock’s value has continued to decline around 50 percent in the past six months, leaving it with a market value of about $8.5 billion before trading,” CNBC reported.

Even Stone’s $20 million worth of restricted stock units dropped while he was with the company, and this prompted him to leave, FT reported. “When he joined Snap from Amazon, where he had most recently served as vice president of finance, he was offered an annual salary of $500,000,” CNBC reported.                           

The company said Stone is leaving to “pursue other opportunities” and that he will continue until the company’s full-year 2018 financial results announcement.

There was some positive news for the company. Anap said its quarterly results would be “slightly favorable” and predicted in its Q3 outlook that it would have revenue between $355 million and $380 million for the next quarter, and adjusted losses between $100 million and $75 million.

Seeking Alpha, citing a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, reported the Snapchat had also been cleaning house in its executive ranks over improper relationships. The WSJ reported that  Snap “ousted two senior execs following a probe that found one had an inappropriate relationship with a contractor.

Francis Racioppi, head of global security, was fired after Snap reportedly found he had an affair with a woman he had hired and then terminated her contract when the relationship ended, according to the report. Racioppi maintains he did nothing wrong and said he retained an attorney.

Meanwhile, the company’s head of human resources, Jason Halbert, said he’d leave the company this week. He wasn’t directly involved but had recruited Racioppi, and the WSJ says Snap chief Evan Spiegel asked Halbert to leave, Seeking Alpha reported.