– Open up. Another day, another meme stock. Or is it?
In the four years since GameStop went viral, it’s been pretty rare for one of the stocks that Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets has pushed to artificial highs to be a woman-led company. But alongside AMC, Nokia, and Trump Media & Technology Group, we can now count Opendoor, the real estate businesses headed by CEO Carrie Wheeler.
Opendoor was a Fortune 500 member in 2022 and 2023 (and Wheeler was a Fortune 500 CEO), but the company has since fallen off the list of America’s largest businesses. An online home buyer and flipper, its fortunes have reversed post-pandemic and after a 2020 SPAC. It came close to being delisted from the Nasdaq earlier this year.
Over the past week, Opendoor’s shares were up more than 400%—which still places its stock price at just $2.88 as of yesterday’s market close. (Kohl’s is another new meme stock of the past week, too.) Investor Eric Jackson is bullish on Opendoor, as are retail traders who see something Wall Street doesn’t.
But of course the attention of Reddit traders can get complicated. Investor Keith Rabois, who was a force behind the launch of the company a decade ago, has been openly questioning Wheeler’s competence and calling for a new CEO—and others are following along. It’s not easy to be a meme, and it’s not easy to be a female CEO.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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