Pinterest spikes 19% after report of Elliott Management stake
5./15 WEST

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) jumped 19% after a report that activist Elliott Management has take a stake in the social-media company.
Elliott is said to have told Pinterest (PINS) that is the company's biggest investor with a stake of more than 9%, according to a WSJ report, citing people familiar. The activist investor has been in talks with Pinterest over the past several weeks.
The Elliott stake comes as Pinterest (PINS) shares have tumbled 75% over the past year after the pandemic benefit appeared to fade away. Pinterest announced late last month that its co-founder/CEO Ben Silbermann is stepping back from that role to transition to executive chairman of the board
Silvermann is being replaced at the helm by Bill Ready, who's been president of commerce at Google (GOOG) since 2020 and was formerly operating chief at PayPal and CEO of Venmo.
The Elliott stake also comes after a report from Bloomberg in October that PayPal (PYPL) had approached Pinterest (PINS) about a possible takeover and had offered around $70/share. Paypal later said that it wasn't pursuing a PINS deal.
The Bloomberg report came after the FT in February 2021 that Microsoft (MSFT) had approached Pinterest about a possible takeover, though PINS indicated it wanted to remain independent at the time.
Pinterest (PINS) short interest is 8.4%.