Shares of database developer MongoDB had their worst day in six months. Its CEO has left to join Meta

Shares of database developer MongoDB fell by their largest single-day percentage drop in nearly seven months during trading on September 28, after the company announced that its president and CEO was stepping down to join Meta Platforms, according to Barron’s.

MongoDB shares plummeted 20.6% on Monday, marking their largest single-day percentage decline since March 3, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Investors reacted to MongoDB’s announcement that Chirantan Desai had stepped down as president and CEO of MongoDB to “take on a leadership role” at Meta Platforms. The decision took effect immediately. Desai left MongoDB less than a year after taking the helm of the company. Before joining MongoDB, he held senior leadership positions at the cloud platform ServiceNow, Cloudflare, a web security and cyberattack protection company; Symantec, a developer of cybersecurity solutions and antivirus software; and Oracle, an enterprise software provider.

MongoDB has already appointed Dev Ittycheria as interim president and CEO to replace Desai; Ittycheria previously served in the same role from 2014 to 2025. Throughout that time, he retained his seat on MongoDB’s board of directors. The company added that it has already begun the search for a new permanent CEO. The company also stated that it “remains confident” in the business’s prospects and reaffirmed its forecasts for the current quarter and fiscal year.

On September 28, Facebook’s parent company separately confirmed that Desai is joining Meta as Director of Corporate Platforms (Meta Enterprise Platform). In this role, Desai will report directly to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Meta Enterprise Platform will focus on transforming the company’s artificial intelligence stack into products and services that enterprises can deploy for their own needs.

“Judging by the market’s reaction, this is a real shock,” noted Howard Ma, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities. Although this is clearly a negative factor for the company, “the only small piece of good news” is that Ittycheria will temporarily return to lead MongoDB: “There’s no one better to lead MongoDB,” Ma remarked, adding that the drop in the company’s stock price on September 28 could create “an attractive entry point” for a position in MongoDB.

D.A. Davidson noted that Desai's departure was a "highly disappointing" development.

Needham added that the news was “unfortunate,” given MongoDB’s investor day scheduled for tomorrow. “He [Desai] is leaving the company in a much stronger position than it was before he arrived,” the analysts noted. Thomas Blakey of Cantor Fitzgerald, for his part, noted that the key issues at this event will be the reliability of the long-term guidance provided under interim leadership and the timeline for appointing a permanent CEO.

Nevertheless, Wall Street generally remains optimistic about the company’s prospects: 32 of the 41 analysts covering MongoDB stock recommend buying it. The remaining nine advise holding. There are no sell recommendations. Wall Street’s average price target for MongoDB shares implies an 11.5% increase from the most recent closing price.

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