By Davit Kirakosyan
Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS) shares surged around 20% after-hours Thursday following a report from The Wall Street Journal that activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has built a stake of more than 9% in the company. According to the people familiar with the matter, Elliott Management has been in discussions with the company over the past several weeks, however, the context of the discussions is unknown.
Ben Silbermann, who stepped down as chief executive of the company, becoming executive chairman in June, has a roughly 37% voting stake in Pinterest. This could limit Elliott Management Corp.’s ability to force changes.
While the company saw dramatic growth in its business during the pandemic, posting its first full-year profit in February with more than $2 billion in annual revenue, global active monthly users for the quarter ended in March dropped 9%, with the company posting a net loss of $5 million. This was a result of the easing of Covid restrictions and people beginning to spend more time offline, as well as changes to Apple’s privacy rules and a slowdown in ad spending.