Michael Saylor steps down as CEO of MicroStrategy. Phong Le, the company’s chairman, will assume the role of CEO.
Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, relinquished his title as chief executive and said he would focus more on bitcoin after the enterprise software maker announced a loss of more than $1 billion related to the fall in the price of cryptocurrency in the second quarter.
Phong Le, chairman of the company, will assume the role of CEO.
Michael Saylor, who is a bitcoin maximalist and pioneered MicroStrategy’s strategy to raise billions of dollars from bitcoin, will continue as chairman of the board and will also assume the new role of executive chairman. .
“I believe separating the roles of Chairman and Executive Chairman will allow us to better pursue our two business strategies of acquiring and owning bitcoin and growing our analytics software business. company”, Mr. Saylor said in a statement.
“As Executive Chairman, I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage the general operations of the company.”
Phong Le has served as MicroStrategy’s president since July 2020 and has also held various other leadership roles since joining the company in 2015, including CFO and COO.
MicroStrategy plans to hold a press conference with analysts to discuss its second quarter results tomorrow during the day
MicroStrategy posts $1 billion loss
MicroStrategy recorded an impairment charge of $917.8 million related to the decline in the value of the bitcoins it holds. Bitcoin fell 59% in the quarter and traded around 45% lower than at the end of the previous year.
Revenue fell to $122.1 million. Analysts polled by Bloomberg were expecting second-quarter revenue of $123.25 million. Quarterly net loss of $1.062 billion, compared to a loss of $299.3 million in the same quarter last year. The quarterly loss is almost exactly double the company’s revenue over the past 12 months.
As of June 30, the carrying value of the company’s 129,699 bitcoins was $1.988 billion reflecting the cumulative impairment loss of $1.989 billion. The cumulative amount is now greater than the bitcoins on the company’s balance sheet.
MicroStrategy started investing in bitcoin in the summer of 2020, after Saylor said he saw it as an inflation hedge. The company’s shares jumped more than 170% that year.
MicroStrategy shares fell about 2.3% in post-trade trading. The stock has lost around 50% this year, matching bitcoin’s fall.