Skift Take
It's all about its anticipated public offering at Airbnb these days. Shore up the plethora of safety issues, make peace with regulators, and bring in seasoned operational executives that the Wall Street crowd will look favorably upon. Was Belinda Johnson a casualty in that push?
As Airbnb readies heading to the stock market in 2020, the homesharing company announced that Chief Operating Officer Belinda Johnson will be exiting her post in March.
Johnson, who joined Airbnb as general counsel in 2011 but has served as chief operating officer for less than two years, cited personal reasons for the move. Johnson, one of the highest profile women in online travel, will take a seat on the Airbnb board of directors.
“As I said, we’re just at the beginning of the Airbnb story and I’ve never been more confident about our future,” Johnson said, according to an Airbnb statement about the move.
As important context to Johnson's departure, The Information reported that privately held Airbnb posted a $100 million loss in the second quarter of 2019 before taxes and interest, compared with a $10 million profit in the
