Symbotic – the Saga Continues...
Connecting the dots and more questions.
It’s always something with Symbotic SYM 0.00%↑ ...
When I first red-flagged the company in May 2024, the headline of my report was “Hiding in the Open.”
Since then, the stock has been up, down and sideways... but mostly down.
The last time Symbotic graced this space was in January, after the company had struck a deal to buy the assets of the Advance Systems and Robotics (ASR) business from its biggest customer, Walmart. The deal seemed dubious, at best – dubious enough that the headline to my report read...
You can click here to read the full report, which explains the round-tripping. But let’s just say this was just the latest in a series of crazy events – starting with an announcement in December that Symbotic was delaying its 10-K and restating results. And that’s a week before it was disclosed the SEC was investigating the company for interfering with a whistleblower interference as well as multiple material weaknesses in its financial reporting AND an adverse opinion from its auditor.
You can let your imagination run wild, but it was enough that my buddy Adam Taub wondered out loud on Twitter how long it would be before CFO Carol Hibbard would leave. She had been on the job for a bit more than a year, and he figured the most she would last was another six months.
As It Turns Out...
He was close – it was six months and a few days. Earlier this week the company announced Hibbard was leaving via a “CFO transition”. The new CFO, Izzy Martins, will be Symbotic’s third CFO in five years. She comes from Avis. While she’s an Avis veteran, she was CFO for less than two years.
But here’s the thing... There appears to be more to this story and it’s playing out in plain sight, but it requires connecting the dots, which Adam has done...
Among them...