Pour one out for Carrie Wheeler, the CEO who just got fired and immediately became a bullish signal…

Opendoor’s board just handed Carrie Wheeler a parachute and a LinkedIn “Open to Work” banner. The result? Investors yeeted shares +10% on the news. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Wheeler, who took the CEO gig in December 2022 after serving as CFO, is out effective immediately. In her place: Shrisha Radhakrishna, the company’s chief tech and product officer, now wearing the dual hat of president and interim CEO while the board fires up the Spencer Stuart executive blender. The headhunter has been tasked with finding “the one”... preferably someone who can handle interest rate volatility without sweating through earnings calls.

And yet, this is just another twist in Opendoor’s unexpected transformation from SPAC roadkill into a WallStreetBets side quest. Shares are up +218% over the past month, thanks largely to EMJ Capital’s Eric Jackson… a Canadian hedge fund manager who publicly planted a flag in the $OPEN bull camp when the stock was still sub-$1. Siri, define “absolute legend.” Side note: Jackson also roasted Wheeler’s performance after the company’s latest earnings call, calling the CEO/CFO tag team’s communication “really awful.” Apparently, the board read the reviews. 

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

With that said, Opendoor’s whole shtick is iBuying… a.k.a, using algorithms to buy homes, slap on some paint, and flip them. It worked great during the zero-rate housing mania of 2021, but higher interest rates turned the model into a slow-motion margin crusher by mid-2022. The company hasn’t posted a profitable quarter since going public via SPAC in 2020, and it’s still digging itself out of the hole. “The board has confidence in the Opendoor team and has conviction in the strategy,” said Eric Feder, lead independent director and Lennar Homes exec. Translation: This is exactly the kind of thing boards say before they completely overhaul the strategy LOL. 

To be fair, the company’s been trying to cut costs, manage inventory smarter, and keep the machine running without burning too much cash… all while fending off delisting threats. Radhakrishna inherits all of that, plus the joy of managing a meme stock where Reddit sentiment can swing 20% of the market cap in an afternoon. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In the end though, while investors are having a field day with the news, keep in mind that leadership changes usually signal instability (unless you’re a meme stock, in which case they’re bullish catalysts because the next CEO might be “the one” who finally moonshots the chart). In Opendoor’s case, the rally is part hope, part spite, and part Jackson-fueled momentum trade.

Meaning, for now,  the board’s betting that swapping the face at the top… and maybe cutting back on the “awful” earnings call comms… is enough to keep the stock memeing. But in a business that lives and dies on housing cycles, the next act might be less about who’s in the corner office and more about whether the Fed ever blinks on rates. Which again, puts all eyes right back on Sugar Daddy Powell. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.