Zip's Cynthia Scott
Zip Co co-founder and CEO Larry Diamond relocated to the United States over the weekend, to oversee the buy now, pay later company’s US division (formerly QuadPay).
The market chatter is now moving on to the identity of the name now running the Australian and New Zealand division, where the profits are, or are supposed to be made.
Tayler Mobbs, the chief of staff seems to be the new face of Zip, alongside Diamond – somehow, for now. Or will Mobbs be calling all the shots?
Questions must be animated as a result. In November last year Zip hired former Telstra and Foxtel executive Cynthia Scott as managing director for the Australia and New Zealand business. So where does Mobbs see Scott in a business bursting with unease, uncertainty and confusion around strategy?
Diamond is still “global CEO” of an enterprise being tested by the fading appeal of BNPL in the mass market, and more so by its short-lived global investment binge. These outlays led to extensive write-downs of goodwill this year, the abandonment of a planned takeover of Sezzle and the sale (sometimes the aborted sale) of non-core international holdings.
In its FY2022 annual report, released two weeks ago, Zip’s chair Diane Smith-Gander reflected on how “the global BNPL market significantly shifted in the second half of the year, requiring a review of strategy”.
Also writing in the annual report, Diamond said: “we have increased our focus on ANZ, where we are currently cash flow positive, and the US, where there is a clear path to being cash flow positive in the near term. We are well positioned in these markets and continue to build deeper relationships with our customers and merchants.”
Diamond’s move may encourage doubts that Zip, in the US, is as well-progressed to being either cash flow positive or as well-positioned as the company argues.
Zip’s shares have fallen by one third, to a close of 63 cents yesterday, since it reported for the full year in the last week of August.