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Opendoor CEO Eric Wu steps down amid U.S. housing slowdown

He will become president of the marketplace business at the company he founded, and the former CFO will become CEO.

Opendoor Technologies Inc. chief executive officer Eric Wu is stepping down from the helm of the company as it grapples with the fallout of a housing market slowdown.

Wu is becoming president of the marketplace business at the San Francisco-based company he founded. He’s being replaced as CEO by Carrie Wheeler, a TPG Global veteran who has served as Opendoor’s chief financial officer since 2020.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead Opendoor as we transform the way to buy and sell real estate,” Wheeler said in a statement Thursday. “We’ve built a solid financial foundation with a strong balance sheet and liquidity position that sets us up to not just manage through this current housing cycle but emerge stronger with market leadership.”

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It’s been a rocky stretch for Opendoor, which pioneered a data-driven spin on flipping known as iBuying that was widely imitated but has proved vulnerable to the volatile pandemic housing market.

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A slowdown in the second half of this year forced Opendoor to sell thousands of homes for less than it paid, leading the company to write down inventory by $573 million. It has laid off workers and told investors to expect more losses in the fourth quarter.

The shares were down 3.5% to $1.80 at 11:16 a.m. in New York. They had fallen 87% this year through the close of trading Thursday.

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Last month, Opendoor launched a new service that Wu called a “second act” — a marketplace designed to let the company generate revenue without putting its own capital at risk. He will continue to lead that service, according to the statement.

Opendoor Technologies Inc. chief Executive Officer Eric Wu is stepping down from the helm of the company as it grapples with the fallout of a housing market slowdown.