Sonos CEO Patrick Spence Steps Down

The timing of this seems odd especially as he has bluffed it out for so long.

What is missing (IMHO) is the announcement of a successor to rebuild, the announcement reads like nothing fundamentally will change and that is not good news for the customers.

This may well end up filed under “be careful what you wish for”.

I don’t celebrate anyone losing their job, but it was bound to happen

This letter from the interim CEO Tom Conrad is worth reading:

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/13/24342354/sonos-interim-ceo-tom-conrad-employee-letter

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/13/24342354/sonos-interim-ceo-tom-conrad-employee-letter

Interim isn’t a successor, understood, but the timing makes me think that the decision to let Spence go was dependent on sales numbers from the ending retail season. I think it’s too early to really tell what the new plan is, if there is a plan yet. It doesn’t it necessarily make sense to scrap existing plans for an entirely new direction.  It may be that the board wants to figure out what the ‘new’ plan is before hiring a permanent CEO.  Don’t know.  It obviously could be a case where the grass is not greener on the other side, but we won’t know till we a couple months from now at best.

Seems like he has the right attitude.  However, decisions like the one to release the app stem from a culture that I’ve experienced before.  The ones at the top really don’t understand the technology, and they resent having to listen to the code monkeys because they can’t understand them either, so they wield the power with no ability to grasp what the impact will be. 

It’s like the Admiral who had a solution to the U-Boat problem in WWII - Just drain the oceans.  When told that would be impossible, he replied “Don’t tell me about any logistical problems, just do as I say!”  The culture that allows an Admiral like that to rise through the ranks doesn’t disappear overnight.  Trust me, it takes decades.

These things are always straight forward - he’s blown various KPIs for the board and they ran out of belief he could turn it around. 

Remember the ACE was going to be the reason that the app fiasco was worth it but from all accounts, sales have been terrible, just terrible. 

Finally! The company is a disaster, worse if you happen to have issues with the App or product. The support is woeful and escalations and resolutions are insanely difficult to achieve. 

Against my better judgement I purchased the Arc Ultra to replace my Arc setup (Arc, 2 x Era 300’s and Sub 3) Installing the Arc Ultra was an absolute PITA. My entire system disappeared during the process and the whole lot had to be factory reset individually. Once sorted, the Arc Ultra will not trueplay no matter what I do, the audio is distorted, crackly/pop and on occasion the audio response from Alexa sounds like electrical arcing. 

Sonos support have been awful, truly awful. I have been misinformed, they closed the case whilst waiting on a response from their engineering, and I went through 2 “level 2” escalations before a third advised the previous 2 had basically handled the case badly (I had been mis-advised that the official stance was to return the Arc Ultra for a refund!) 

If this is what I should expect from the flagship Sonos soundbar then this just highlights how truly shocking things got under the outgoing CEO. 

Currently awaiting an exchange of my Arc Ultra from my retailer, if the situation is not resolved soon I will be requesting a full refund. The whole situation is absolutely appalling. 

I’m sure we will see a lot of activity over the coming days as the news hits and speculation starts. I will keep my personal opinions regarding the leadership to myself. I am mindful that despite the failings, he is still a human being and will be dealing with his own thoughts as he departs the company. 

Turing a well regarded leading brand into a dumpster fire really pays well. The $1.875 million severance he’s getting should help him during this difficult time. 

My thoughts are with the 100 or so employees who were fired as collateral damage after the disaster app release and those who remain who by all accounts have a difficult task ahead. 
 

https://www1.salary.com/Patrick-Spence-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-SONOS-INC.html#:~:text=As%20Chief%20Executive%20Officer%20at,for%20the%202023%20fiscal%20year.

5.2 Million?

I think he’ll be fine. Good riddance. I do hope the best for the employees and wish some proper management would come up.

I'm ecstatic to see him leave. Disastrous glitchy app, dropping Google Assistant support, and ignoring numerous minimum volume complaints about Sonos Ace. Good riddance to him.