Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy just started the clock on the company’s effort to remain independent.

  • The personal fitness business has about six months — roughly until April — to reverse its spiraling fortunes, McCarthy told WSJ today.

Peloton is in the midst of a massive turnaround strategy centered on going mass market and cutting costs dramatically.

The company today announced its fourth round of layoffs this year — with 500 jobs cut on top of the thousands already eliminated.

  • McCarthy took over in February. He recently told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference that he came out of retirement to do one thing — fix Peloton — and that he would go back into retirement once the job was finished.

Peloton is one of several companies that bet too heavily on the staying power of pandemic trends.

  • Shopify cut staff this year after it misjudged e-commerce trends and expanded too rapidly.
  • FedEx is closing locations, as well as cutting costs and worker hours, after overestimating how long demand would last as its costs rose.