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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Healthcare Company loses $210 million in stock value after CEO says he is ‘eager’ to hire anti-Israel protesters


 Buzzy healthcare company Hims & Hers lost nearly $210 million in stock value in a single day after the company’s CEO said he and other executives were “eager” to hire anti-Israel student protesters who’ve faced disciplinary actions from their universities.

The online sexual health and pharmaceutical company plummet 8% on Friday from its opening price of $12.24 to $11.26 — just two days after Palestinian-American CEO Andrew Dudum said companies would be happy to have the protesters and encouraged them to apply to Hims and Hers.

“Moral courage > College degree,” Dudum tweeted on Thursday, amid the nationwide anti-Israel protests at universities that have seen more than 2,100 people arrested

Hundreds more have been suspended or banned from campus activities for participating in the demonstrations.

“If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working,” Dudum added.

“There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline,” he added alongside the Hims job openings link.

The market cap of the company opened at $2.62 billion and closed at $2.41 billion, and share price continued to slide in after-hours trading on Friday and Saturday.

Trading volume was also more than double the average for the stock — indicating that some shareholders were rushing to get out.

The Post has reached out to Hims and Hers for comment on the sudden stock drop.

College students across the country have been demanding that their school’s divest their finances from countries associated with Israel as it continues its retaliatory offensive in Gaza.

Dudum, who founded Hims and Hers in 2017 and has family in Gaza and the West Bank, took on a markedly different tone from other CEOs who have derided or promised not hire student protesters.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp blasted the protesters this week saying they should be shipped off to North Korea as part of an “exchange program” to give them perspective.

“We’re gonna do an exchange program sponsored by Karp. A couple months in North Korea, nice-tasting flavored bark. See how you feel about that,” the software boss said at the invite-only Hill and Valley Forum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, where he was the featured speaker.

Bill Ackman, head of Pershing Square Capital Management, was among first to publicly declare he wouldn’t hire students from Harvard who signed a letter allegedly blaming Israel for Hamas’ violent Oct. 7 attack.

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