Hours after the dumping of Sonos CEO Patrick Spence, the board of the struggling audio Company have now flicked Sonos Chief Product Officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, who has been described as the architect of the disastrous app upgrade that could be the catalyst for the downfall of the Company who even before the app debacle was struggling.

Bouvat-Merlin, (seen below) who has been product chief since 2023, will remain an adviser to the new interim CEO Tom Conrad who is also taking on the product development role.

His first major move since taking over the company, was to sack Bouvat-Merlin with other senior executives in marketing and product development now facing a pink slip moment.

Among them chief commercial officer Deirdre Findlay with the company’s corporate governance page claiming Findlay “oversees all marketing, revenue, and customer experience organizations at Sonos. She is responsible for integrated brand strategy, geographic expansion strategies, and all go to market execution.”

On her LinkedIn page she is described as Global Chief Commercial Officer Sonos. Global Chief Marketing Officer. President Consumer Revenue. Digital Transformation. Boards: Olaplex, Sonos (former) and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Advisor: Glynn 100, Ridge Ventures.

Back in May 2024, Sonos released a completely rebuilt and overhauled mobile app for Android and iOS, it was a disaster with a woke culture and work from home policies partially blamed for the disaster due to a lack of communication and testing.

The new software was meant to improve performance, instead it crashed Sono’s sound systems and customers were angry at the delay as the Company tried to fix the problem.

In a desperate move to try and recover lost sales and to mask the problems with their app, Sonos rolled out a Black Friday, Thanksgiving and holiday period advertising campaign on TV and in cinema’s, titled The Elves of Sound’, it was described as a spirited hero film that fused holiday magic, high-energy sound and quirky humour, making Sonos the essential soundtrack for every festive gathering.

The campaign angered Sonos customers and was seen as a “a joke” an “insult” by customers.

One customer wrote on a comment page “They dumped a ton of money into marketing campaigns that could have been used to cover salaries. Employees seeing their friends laid off while Sonos is spending ridiculous amounts on ad campaigns could be a morale killer”.

They also questioned the effectiveness of the Sonos marketing since the app debacle.

“This marketing may have even hurt the company more than it helped. I know that every single ad that Sonos posted on Facebook was met with dozens if not hundreds of comments from angry Sono’s owners talking about how horrible the app is and not to buy Sono’s products until the app gets fixed”.

The app controversy effectively torpedoed Sonos’ reputation with many customers seeing it as the last straw in a series of Spence led initiatives that damaged the reputation of the Company.

One customer wrote on a Verge comment page “They’ve killed the company’s reputation. They’ve been going downhill for a few years, even since the debacle when they bricked old devices that people “traded in”.

“They introduced a new architecture that separated older hardware from newer hardware, and then the app fiasco. The company used to have a lot of supporters, but most of them are now reluctant to spend money on any new Sonos gear”.

This is a company that almost never offered discounts, making them very Apple-like.

In the past few years, they have started discounting their products regularly, “Which shows that they are desperate” one customer wrote.

CEO Patrick Spence parted ways with the Company earlier this week some claim she should have been sacked years ago.

A Sonos spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Bouvat-Merlin joined Sonos in 2016 as a hardware executive and was its operations chief prior to his promotion to product chief.

“With my stepping in as CEO, the board, Max, and I have agreed that my background makes the chief product officer role redundant,” Conrad said in an email to the staff. “Therefore, Max’s role is being eliminated, and the product organization will report directly to me. I’ve asked Max to advise me over the next period to ensure a smooth transition and I am grateful that he’s agreed to do that.”

 

 

Conrad has spent his career in engineering and product design for a variety of technology companies, including as chief product officer at Quibi, a vice president of product at Snap Inc. and chief technology officer and co-creator of Pandora Media.