MW Opendoor bulls are getting what they want, and the stock is surging again

By James Rogers

Chief Executive Carrie Wheeler has stepped down, to the delight of institutional investors including Eric Jackson, founder of EMJ Capital

The e-commerce platform for residential real-estate transactions has been attracting meme-stock-like activity. CEO Carrie Wheeler is stepping down effective immediately, Opendoor revealed Friday.

Shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc. are climbing after the company announced a leadership change - something that backers of the stock have been calling for amid a recent frenzy that sent shares skyrocketing.

In a statement Friday, Opendoor (OPEN) said that Chief Executive and Carrie Wheeler, who chairs the company's board, was stepping down from her roles, effective immediately. Chief Technology and Product Officer Shrisha Radhakrishna has been appointed president and interim leader.

Opendoor, an e-commerce platform for residential property transactions, said Wheeler had approached the board of directors about her intent, and they began a CEO-succession planning process at midyear. "The CEO search is well underway," the company said in a statement.

Noted Opendoor bull Eric Jackson, founder of EMJ Capital, has been vocal in calling for leadership change at the company. He found out about Wheeler's stepping down while participating in a livestream Friday morning, describing the news as "awesome."

"We all need to come together now and find the best CEO, the best team, and the best board that fully harnesses the Opendoor OG spirt with the worldwide retail support that's bigger - I would estimate - than even the support for Palantir," he wrote, in a subsequent post on X.

The heavily shorted stock was up more than 9% in afternoon trades after ending Thursday's session up 25%. The stock is trading above its July 21 close of $3.21, which was its highest point during the frenzy of trading activity that also saw shares of Kohl's Corp. $(KSS)$ and Krispy Kreme Inc. (DNUT) soar. The flurry of activity was described as a meme stock "mini bubble."

Short interest as a percentage of Opendoor's public float of shares is 23.4%. The stock has soared 324.6% in the last three months. Rival Zillow Group Inc.'s (Z) short interest is 8.5%, while the stocks that were the first to be characterized as meme stocks, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. $(AMC)$ and GameStop Corp. $(GME)$, have short interest of 9% and 16.6%, respectively.

MarketWatch data: These are the most heavily shorted stocks on U.S. markets

Even before the news of its leadership change, Opendoor had been squarely in the spotlight this week, with investor and crypto bull Anthony Pompliano revealing that he holds a long position in the stock.

Pompliano, who is the chief executive of ProCap Financial, added that he is "cheering for the company."

In a Friday post on the X platform, he wrote that the company's "comeback story is just beginning," adding that Opendoor "needs to hire a dynamic leader who is prepared to lead the organization in the modern world."

Pompliano also believes, he said, that Opendoor could be a big beneficiary of a housing boom when interest rates drop, pointing to the new position in the builder D.R. Horton Inc. $(DHI)$ taken by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. $(BRK.B)$ $(BRK.A)$.

It also emerged this week that hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones has increased his stake in Opendoor. In a 13-F filing Thursday, the Tudor Investment Corp. revealed that it had increased its stake in Opendoor to 2,682,410 shares from 228,231 shares.

Earlier this month, Opendoor shares tanked after its second-quarter results, weighed down by a weaker-than-expected financial outlook and a narrow earnings miss. The results prompted TV personality and executive chair of Beyond Inc. $(BYON)$ Marcus Lemonis to urge the company to lower its customer-acquisition costs.

Lemonis wrote on X that there could be "a very interesting partnership" between Opendoor and home-goods retailers Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock and Kirkland's. Beyond is the parent company of Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock and also partners with Kirkland's, which was recently rebranded as the Brand House Collective Inc.

-James Rogers

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August 15, 2025 13:09 ET (17:09 GMT)

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