FaZe Clan has officially reported that it terminated its contract with CEO Lee Trink on Sept. 9. In the meantime, FaZe’s COO and CFO Christoph Pachler, will take on the role of Interim CEO in addition to his other duties.
The reason behind this decision is unknown. Other than FaZe Clan’s initial announcement, neither FaZe Clan nor Lee Trink have publicly commented on this event.
Lee Trink was a part of FaZe Clan for more than seven years. First joining as an Advisor in 2016 and then taking the role of CEO. Before joining FaZe he worked with multiple esteemed artists like Coldplay and The Rolling Stones as well as several well-known brands including General Motors and Harley-Davidson.
One of the possible drivers of Lee’s termination is the current state of the FaZe Clan’s stock price and potential delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange. According to CNBC, going public is something Lee felt very confident about.
According to the notice of delisting, FaZe Clan’s stock closing price must be at a minimum of $1.00 per share for consecutive 10 days until Sept. 19 to remain on the stock market. As of now, FaZe’s stock price is $0.22 and the last time it was $1 or higher was back in February.
FaZe laid off around 20 percent of its staff back in May to plan for long-term success and continue growing revenue amid the low stock price. Lee Trink highlighted that layoffs did not mean they were abandoning their aspirations for FaZe. But, given the circumstances, it might be hard for some of us to believe him.
It is hard to say what the future of FaZe but we can be almost certain that the delisting will happen. The latest FaZe tournament results in the latest CS:GO events like IEM Cologne 2023 or recent Call of Duty League Majors all had their moments, but overall do not seem promising enough.
