Adidas taps Puma’s Bjørn Gulden as new CEO

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss reports that Adidas has tapped former Puma executive Bjørn Gulden as the company’s new CEO.

Video transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

BRAD SMITH: Welcome back, everyone. Time for Cut For Time. Three stories, one minute on the clock for each. We start with this. Adidas said it tapped Bjorn Gulden to take over the company as its new CEO, luring him away from its rival Puma. Gulden will be a successor to current CEO Kasper Rorsted who is stepping down following a string of disappointing financial results here. This is a significant move, and Adidas shares are reflecting that. Up by about 3% right now.

BRIAN SOZZI: Ah, this guy is inheriting a house on fire here. Wow, I mean, no more-- what no more Yeezy brand. You're dealing-- before Yeezy, Adidas was dealing with cultural issues inside the company. He has a lot to clean up, and it's unclear when any efforts by him to do so will start to appear in this company's financials. And then, oh yeah, you still have to go to war with Nike every single day.

BRAD SMITH: Well, what is the turnaround strategy here for Adidas? If you're coming at it from Puma's perspective-- and Puma, quite frankly, has done a lot over the past few years to make sure that they've got the collaborations with cultural influencers. I think about Chris Brickley and how much I watch his content every day because he puts together some of those pro hoops runs.

He's got his own shoe. J. Cole's got his own Puma shoe as well. And bringing some of that cultural influence back on over to Adidas as well, those are some of the partnerships that are going to need to be struck up. It's also going to come down to partnerships on post sports as well.

[BUZZER]

We'll see where that can move [? from. ?]

BRIAN SOZZI: Right. Very sad that Adidas, I would say, parted ways with Reebok, sold that business. They should have [INAUDIBLE]

BRAD SMITH: Two authentic brands, yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: Absolutely.