Key Takeaways

  • Snap Inc. Chief Financial Officer Derek Andersen will step down on May 8 to pursueother career opportunities, the company said in a securities filing on Monday.
  • The Santa Monica, California-based parent company of Snapchat plans to appoint Doug Hott, vice president of finance, strategy, and corporate development, to replace Andersen as CFO, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • The CFO announcement comes after Snap recently decided tocut 16% of its global workforceto further focus on artificial intelligence investments. The layoffs will affect 1,000 full-time employees, and the company will also close 300 open positions, CEO Evan Spiegel said in a memo on April 15.

Deeper Dive

Andersen leaves after seven years as Snap's CFO, having previously served as vice president of finance at e-commerce giant Amazon, according to his LinkedIn profile.

His successor, Hott, is also a former Amazon employee who joined Snap in 2019 as vice president of finance and has held his current role since July 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously spent four years at Amazon Prime Video, holding roles including director of finance, strategy, and business development for Amazon Studios.

His past experience also includes eight years at Procter & Gamble, where he held several executive positions, including finance group manager for global business services and finance group manager for global fabric care.

Hott will take over Snap's top finance role as the technology company—which also offers the Bitmoji AR development tool and Spectacle augmented reality glasses—seeks to accelerate its investments in artificial intelligence. The increased focus on AI agents and tools stems both from a renewed pursuit of profitability and pressure from activist investors to catch up with competitors including Facebook parent Meta.

On March 31, investor Irenic Capital Management sent apublic letterto Snap's leadership urging the company to take several measures to boost its value—which, according to the letter, should be higher than its current valuation of $7.2 billion.

Among other actions, Irenic, which holds a 2.5% stake in Snap's Class A shares, recommended the company "rationalize its cost structure," noting that its headcount ballooned from 3,000 to 5,200 employees during the pandemic.

"Like many of your peers, you over-hired. But unlike your peers, you have not corrected course," the investor said in the letter. Irenic also suggested Snap shut down its "Specs" division, citing high costs, and recommended further leveraging AI to optimize advertising and help monetize its image and video datasets.

"Snap should not continue doing what it has been doing. It is not working. We are not telling you anything you do not know. In fact, about eight months ago, you said Snap was at an 'inflection point,'" Irenic wrote, citing Spiegel's repeated comments during the February fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call.

In outlining the planned layoffs, Spiegel noted the move is expected to reduce Snap's annualized cost base by more than $500 million in the second half of this year.

He said the cuts would also help Snap on a "clearer path to net profitability." For the full year 2025, Snap narrowed its net lossto $460 million, compared with $698 million in the same period the prior fiscal year, according to the earnings report released on February 4.

"While these changes are necessary to realize Snap's long-term potential, we believe the rapid advancement of AI can enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase efficiency, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers," Spiegel said in his April 15 letter regarding the layoffs.

In an investor update accompanying the April 15 filing, Snap noted that AI now generates 65% of new code, while its AI agents answer over 1 million questions monthly. The company also offers Snapchat users the"MyAI" chatbot。

The Snapchat parent also updated its full-year 2026cost structure guidance, expecting full-year 2026 restructuring costs between $95 million and $130 million, with most of those costs expected to occur in the second quarter of this year, according to the update.

Snap expects to report itsfirst-quarter 2026 resultson May 6, according to a company announcement.