Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) shares spiked as much as 10% in morning trading after the company announced the departure of its CEO Carrie Wheeler effective immediately.
Opendoor said it is searching for a new CEO to lead the ibuyer in its next growth phase, just weeks after the stock skyrocketed in a meme-fueled rally.
The board appointed Shrisha Radhakrishna, Opendoor’s chief technology and product officer, as president and interim leader of the company.
Shares of Opendoor have been on a wild ride over the past month, powered in part by Carvana (CVNA) turnaround spotter EMJ Capital and speculative investors on Reddit’s wallstreetbets.
EMJ Capital founder and president Eric Jackson wrote in mid-July that his firm was taking a long position in Opendoor, which was then trading under $1 per share.
Jackson has been critical of Opendoor’s top leadership, most recently following the company’s latest quarterly results in early August, when the stock sank 20% following a disappointing earnings forecast.
“The communication on the earnings call from the CEO and the CFO was really awful,” Jackson told Yahoo Finance last week.
“The management team didn’t do anything to get this thing up from 51 cents to almost five bucks,” he said. “It was basically all of us retailers who saw the value in this platform, supported it. We got not a word from management over these last few weeks. So I think she’s got to go.”