Dive Brief:
- Online real estate platform Opendoor announced Alphabet and eBay alum Selim Freiha will join the company as its CFO effective Nov. 4, succeeding interim CFO Christy Schwartz, according to a Tuesday securities filing.
- Shrisha Radhakrishna — whose previous roles include stints at Intuit and LegalZoom — will also join the San Francisco-based company as its chief technology and chief product officer, according to a Tuesday press release. Opendoor provides an online platform for residential real estate transactions, according to its website.
- "Both Selim and Shrisha have extensive experience building and executing for world-class, customer-centric organizations,” an Opendoor spokesperson told CFO Dive in an email. “Selim will be instrumental in leading Opendoor into our next chapter of growth as we continue building the largest digital platform for residential real estate transactions.”
Dive Insight:
Opendoor’s interim finance chief Schwartz — who took on the role in 2022, when then-CFO Carrie Wheeler was appointed as the company’s CEO — will continue to serve as its chief accounting officer upon resigning from her interim role in November, according to the Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She is expected to remain with the company until at least May 2, Opendoor said.
Her successor Freiha most recently served as vice president of finance, capital allocation and planning for Google parent Alphabet, according to his LinkedIn profile. His previous roles also include a six-year span at online marketplace eBay, where he served as vice president of corporate FP&A, among other roles.
In association with his appointment as finance chief, Freiha will receive an annual base salary of $500,000 and will be eligible for a target bonus opportunity of 50% of that salary, according to the company filing, “In lieu of the foregoing annual bonus in 2024,” Freiha will also receive a one-time bonus of $750,000, to be paid in two equal installments, the company said.
Freiha and Radhakishna’s appointments are occurring as Opendoor continues to confront a “challenging” housing market. During the company’s second quarter, Opendoor “began observing and responding to signals that indicated additional slowing in the housing market,” CEO Wheeler said in August during its Q2 2024 earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
Spiking prices, a lower inventory of available homes and high mortgage rates have contributed to ongoing weakness in the U.S. housing market, with just 2.5% of homes in the country seeing new ownership in the first eight months of the year — the lowest turnover rate in a 30-year period, according to a report by CNN Business which cited data from real estate brokerage platform RedFin.
Opendoor reported revenues of $1.5 billion for the quarter ended June 30 — a 24% decrease from the prior year period, but a 28% increase compared to Q1 2024, according to its earnings release. OpenDoor also reported a $92 million net loss for the quarter, compared to $23 million in net income in the prior year period and a $109 million net loss in 1Q 2024.
Opendoor will continue to “preserve flexibility” given ongoing headwinds in the housing market, Wheeler said in August. However, the CEO also pointed to factors which could have a positive impact for the company during the second half of the year — given an “increasing probability of interest rate reductions by the Fed in the second half of 2024, there are reasons to believe that we may benefit from any potential tailwinds in housing market activity,” Wheeler said at the time.
During its September meeting, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates from historic highs by half a percentage point to a range between 4.75% to 5%, CFO Dive previously reported. The cut came among “growing confidence” in cooling inflation among central bank officials, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at the time.
Following the September cut, mortgage rates dropped to their lowest level since February 2023, CNN reported, citing data from Fannie Mae.
