NEW YORK (AP) — Peloton has appointed its next CEO. Peter Stern, co-founder of Apple Fitness+ and a current Ford executive, will soon helm of the tech-fitness company.
Stern takes over as president and CEO on January 1, Peloton said Thursday. Karen Boone, one of two current interim CEOs, will continue to serve as chief executive through the end of the year, the company said.
Shares for the New York company climbed more than 20% Thursday.
Thursday's announcement arrives nearly six months after Barry McCarthy stepped down as Peloton’s chief executive. His departure in May came alongside larger restructuring and cost-cutting efforts at the company, which included the layoffs of hundreds of employees.
Sales of Peloton bikes soared during the early days of COVID-19, when many consumers turned to at-home workouts, but that all slowed as pandemic restrictions eased. As a result, the company has reported losses in more recent years.
Peloton also reported Thursday that it lost $900,000 during its first quarter on revenue of $586 million. Both were better than Wall Street had expected.
In efforts to turn things around, Peloton has been working on rebranding itself for some time — shifting its identity as a seller of luxury exercise bikes and equipment to health technology for all. The company recently unveiled plans to sell its deluxe stationary bike at a discount at Costco this holiday season. And back in 2022, Peloton made its exercise bikes and other gear available on Amazon in the U.S.
In a statement Thursday, Stern called working for Peloton “a dream come true" — adding that he is grateful for the opportunity "to take Peloton and its Members to even greater heights.”
According to the company, Stern himself has been a Peloton member since 2016. He currently serves as president of Ford Integrated Services — and previously also held leadership roles at Time Warner Cable and Apple, where he co-founded Apple Fitness+.
In connection with this week's announcement, Chris Bruzzo, who has been serving as Peloton's co-interim CEO alongside Boone, will step down on Friday. But both Bruzzo and Boone will remain members of Peloton's board. Stern is also expected to get a seat on the board.
FILE - Peter Stern, Apple Vice President of Services, speaks at the Steve Jobs Theater during an event to announce new products, March 25, 2019, in Cupertino, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Rockets fired from Lebanon killed two more people in northern Israel on Thursday, Israeli medics said, raising the death toll there to seven in what marked the deadliest strikes to hit Israel since its military invaded southern Lebanon earlier this month.
The attack came as senior U.S. diplomats were in the region to push for cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration’s final months.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies backed by Iran.
The conflict along the border escalated into a full-blown war last month, when Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces pushed into Lebanon at the start of October.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said its medics confirmed the deaths of a 30-year-old man and 60-year-old woman in a suburb of the northern city of Haifa. They also treated two other people who suffered mild injuries and were hospitalized.
The Israeli military said that roughly 25 rockets crossed into Israel from Lebanon as part of the volley that struck an olive grove where people had gathered for the harvest.
The deadly attack came just hours after local officials in Metula, in northern Israel, said that projectiles fired from Lebanon had struck an agricultural area, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer.
Metula, Israel’s northernmost town which is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides, has suffered heavy damage from rockets. The town’s residents evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural workers remain.
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.
Agricultural areas along Israel’s border, where much of the country’s orchards are located, are closed military areas that can only be entered with official permission.
Hezbollah’s newly named top leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in a video statement Wednesday that the militant group will keep fighting Israel until it is offered cease-fire terms it deems acceptable. He said it has recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including attacks using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies that was widely blamed on Israel.
“Hezbollah’s capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate from more areas of southern Lebanon, as airstrikes in different parts of the country killed eight people, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Israel has warned people to evacuate from large areas of the country, including major cities in the south and east. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced since the escalation in September.
Thousands of people have fled from Baalbek, the main city in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, and surrounding areas after Israeli evacuation warnings and aerial bombardment on Wednesday.
Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir al-Ahmar region, some 17 kilometers (10 miles) to the southeast, said the main highway “turned into a parking lot.” He said around 12,000 displaced people are staying in the area, with most being hosted in private homes.
At one of the shelters, families with luggage were still arriving on Thursday.
“Our homes were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing —no clothes or anything else — and took shelter here.”
More than 2,800 people have been killed and nearly 13,000 wounded in Lebanon since the conflict began last year, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
In Israel, rockets, missiles, and drones launched by Hezbollah have killed at least 68 people, about half of them soldiers. More than 60,000 Israelis from towns and cities along the border have been evacuated from their homes for more than a year.
Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Tawil from Deir al-Ahmar, Lebanon.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, play at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced people, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, sit at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, study inside at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A displaced woman, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with her family amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, walks at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, play at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A displaced woman, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, holds her daughter at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced people, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel, take shelter inside a church sanctuary, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, play inside a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A displaced woman, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, changes the diaper of her daughter at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, play at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, listen to a story at a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, are reflected in a mirror inside a school being used as a shelter, in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescue workers use excavators to remove the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike, as they search for victims in Sarafand, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A civil defence worker searches for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday night, in Sarafand, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Emergency workers carry the body of a victim found in the rubble of a destroyed building hit Tuesday night in an Israeli airstrike in Sarafand, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
