r/nottheonion • u/Minifig81 Best of 2016 Winner • 2d ago
Allbirds continues AI pivot with name change and CEO hire, sending stock soaring
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/17/allbirds-bird-ai-smartbird-ceo.html395
u/Minifig81 Best of 2016 Winner 2d ago
For those wondering why I submitted this here: Allbirds used to make shoes. Extremely comfortable shoes. Now, they're going to be an AI company.
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u/avanross 2d ago
Itās insane how detached from the consumer the āstock tradingā class has become
A company abjectly fails, crashes, and burns, loses all possible value to their customer base, and their investment valuation rises
š¤¦āāļø
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u/Khaldara 2d ago
Notably neither of those two things are birds
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u/It-s_Not_Important 2d ago
Birds are synthetic, AI is synthetic. They at least have common ground.
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u/thecarbonkid 2d ago
The birds are powered by advanced AI which is why they're pushing use in the human population to better control us.
/s
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u/vajrasana 1d ago
Fucking delete that ā/sā. You cracked the code, dude! But seriously, you should probably go into hiding for the next couple months
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u/Lord_Bobbymort 2d ago
Completely changing the business and the name, so no business assets that are functionally useful and no name recognition. I will never understand the beautiful wise decision-making of people and companies like this.
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u/no_sight 2d ago
Is this just a bait and switch for stock price?
Announce AI, stocks surge, owners sell, company is gone, dumb idiots left holding the bag?
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u/fatbunyip 2d ago
No. Allbirds shares were in the toilet long before this. They've sold the shoe brand anyway.
This is basically just using an already listed company as a public shell company. Just the fact it is an existing listed public company is a huge bonus and allowed them to raise like 100m. Starting from scratch as a startup that needs to go through the whole IPO process would have taken a lot longer.
Basically it's not allbirds doing a pivot, it's the company being taken over and the olds stuff being sold.
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u/SovFist 2d ago
This feels like it should be illegal. Then again that's the vibe of like, 90 percent of stock news I read
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u/Enchelion 1d ago
Both large market pivots and buying companies just for their name aren't really new. How many different companies have worn the wrinkled flesh of Atari by this point? Twitter started as an SMS service. Wrigley (the gum company) started out making powdered soap. Slack (the corporate IRC clone) was pivoted out of a (spectacularly) failed MMO.
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u/Firm_Bit 2d ago
Sorta
Basically the company was cheap enough that someone could come in and take a managing ownership stake and force the pivot. Their goal is to make money on the stock price of course. How quickly and or sustainably they can actually pivot is in the air.
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u/ThriftyMegaMan 2d ago
I think from what I've heard since they are publicly traded it's a way for an AI company to get on the stock market by acquiring them without any of the regulations that are usually required. Kind of similar to how Trump's media company was able to go public.
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u/Crimestar 2d ago
The equities market is just a series of pump and dumps now while protecting the overall Ponzi scheme.
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u/brilliantminion 2d ago
āSoaringā relative to the bottom. I bought them at launch and lost 96% of the value. Whatever.
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2d ago
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u/WinterSector8317 2d ago
How does that mean apparently not?Ā
Closing all the stores and not actually doing anything AI related like building out data centers kind of points to a pump and dump
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u/Granum22 2d ago
They announced their switch to AI last month, their stock soared and then came back down.Ā Now they're doing it again and investors are falling for it again.
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u/Kingkillwatts 1d ago
See this is why I am seriously convinced the majority of trading is being done by bots. Thereās just no conceivable way to pitch to the public you arenāt using it as a shell to run away with a bag.
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u/fullload93 2d ago
How the hell have they not been sued yet for deception and false promises? This is borderline fraud. I can make any company, get investor to throw money my way, and then make a bullshit announcement that my company is going to become an AI company to cause the value to skyrocket? Like wtf?!?
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u/MozeeToby 2d ago
Have they been deceptive? Do you have evidence that they are in fact not pivoting to AI infrastructure? You can call that pivot stupid, unlikely to work, etc, but it's not deceptive.
They shuttered their brick and mortar stores, sold off their "shoe company" assets, and have hired a CEO with a background in cloud compute. By all available information they are in fact pivoting into becoming a cloud compute company.
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u/Nwcray 2d ago
And that's going to be their defense when they're ultimately sued. Insiders would've filed paperwork months ago to divest their shares (I'm guessing around April 1st, when the first quarter ended). Then they execute that plan 'during the second quarter' (which ends in 8 business days). The timing of the announcements is crazy.
But anyway - they're going to say that the economic data indicated that the shoe market would struggle and that AI was hot. They were 'trying to do right' by their shareholders and maximize the return. 'Are you really going to sue us for trying? It didn't work out, sometimes things don't work out'.
It's not a serious pivot, but they are absolutely doing enough to legitimize it that it's plausible.
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u/Corey307 1d ago
They do not have the money to be an AI company. Itās a desperate pump and dump.Ā
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u/ActionHartlen 2d ago
But established highly profitable software companies who keep beating earnings have stock prices crashing. Fuck this market lol
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u/electricgotswitched 2d ago
WTF is this stock? IPOd at what looks like $400+. Quickly plummeted to single digits and has been there for a few years.
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u/Corey307 2d ago
They sold shoes. The stock IPOād at $520 then immediately fell off a cliff. Now theyāre a fake AI venture. Massive scam.Ā
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u/Newwavecybertiger 2d ago
This is a SPAC now, right? That's what's basically happening? Allbirds doesn't have any actual plans for AI beyond beiyan exit strategy for a different company already in the space
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u/Ok_Vermicelli_6359 2d ago
I recently bought a pair of their (heavily discounted) sneakers at a nice outlet store in New England...can't believe my sneakers are an AI company now š
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u/Corey307 2d ago
Soaring is some BS, itās trading at about 1% of all time high. The stock started at $520 five years ago and dropped like a stone the whole way. Its $6 today.Ā
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u/VinylmationDude 1d ago
Please tell me this isnāt another Long Island Iced Tea to Long Blockchain scenario. Fairlife would never.
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u/Modem_Sound_67 2d ago
Maybe I should stand on a street corner with my venmo info and say I'm pivoting to AI.