Opening the Door for the Next Carvana – C-suite Transitions

It was November 2021. After a big stimulus fueled rally, the markets had started to fall once investors realized that inflation was not really as transitory as the Fed claimed. Tech stocks and “science project” companies that went public through a SPAC, were especially hard hit.

Zillow (Z) had just decided to exit its ill-fated experiment with home flipping (iBuying as it is called) and the company’s valuation had dropped below that of Opendoor (OPEN). The irony of the situation was that Opendoor was primarily focused on the very same home flipping business that had gutted Zillow’s stock.

In this environment, I wrote a Seeking Alpha article with a rare sell rating on Opendoor and the stock went on to drop more than 97% from $19.73 in November 2021 to $0.51 earlier this year.

Since hitting bottom, the stock rebounded nearly ten fold to just over $5, fueled in large part by a meme stock rally. Leading the rally was Toronto-based fund manager Eric Jackson who in addition to his countless bullish posts on X, has also now decided to camp out outside Drake’s home, holding up a sign asking Drake to buy at least one share of Opendoor.

This is not a short report and I don’t have a position in Opendoor. The recent decision by Opendoor’s CEO to quit, prompted us to take a closer look at the company as part of our monthly C-suite Transitions article series.

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