Post #1163349
2026-04-15 15:25 UTC
www.cnbc.com/…/allbirds-bird-stock-shoes-ai.html
Struggling shoe retailer Allbirds makes bizarre pivot from shoes to AI, stock explodes more than 400%
I had such a hard time coming up with an original joke for this, until i realized the reason why is that allbirds is stealing jokes from the dotcom bubble in the first place.
The company, valued around $4 billion at its peak, sold its intellectual property and other assets two weeks ago for $39 million. The stock surged over 400%, from under $3 a share up to $13. The shoe company had a market cap of about $21 million Tuesday.
Oh. so, bit of a misleading headline there CNBC. This wasn’t a real publicly traded company, it was a company on life support that got pivoted by a greedy founder looking to cash in. Cynical move or the delusions of a true believer? does it matter?
Regardless, the stupidity is too much, the resemblance too striking. good luck to Allbirds in the totally normal footwear-to-high tech pivot that is happening in this totally normal economy.
Replies (2)
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@V0ldek@awful.systems 2026-04-16 09:46
The company, valued around $4 billion at its peak, sold its intellectual property and other assets two weeks ago for $39 million. What the fuck happened here. How did a shoe company get so high and how on earth did it lose 98% of its value? Were shoes really big during covid and then the demand disappeared, wtf
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@eedly@mindly.social 2026-04-16 14:31
@sansruse@awful.systems "Meanwhile, Satya Nadella has announced that Microsoft is pivoting from AI to shoes. When asked if this is a cynical ploy laying the groundwork for a potentially profitable pivot back to AI next month, he replied 'No, but... I mean... Now that you...' and then appeared lost in thought for several minutes." @BlueMonday1984@awful.systems