Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon will no longer DJ in public, several outlets reported ahead of his bank’s earnings report Tuesday, a step that comes amid increased scrutiny into Solomon as Goldman grapples with slumping profits.
DJ D-Sol performs at a 2020 concert in the Hamptons.
The 61-year-old Solomon, an unlikely candidate for electronic dance music given his day job, has performed a variety of high-profile gigs in recent years, including a performance last summer at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.
But Solomon, whose stage name is DJ D-Sol, will no longer spin in public, the Financial Times first reported late Monday.
Sources told the Times and Bloomberg he decided to quit his side hustle due to unwanted media coverage, a rationale corroborated by Goldman spokesman Tony Fratto, who told the Times that Solomon’s scaleback “is not news” but the “media attention became a distraction.”
The decision comes amid a rash of reports in recent months on tensions between Solomon and other Goldman decision makers, with some criticism centered around his hobby. It’s been an uncharacteristically rough stretch for Goldman of late as profits have declined on a 12-month rolling basis for nine consecutive quarters. Shares of the Solomon-led firm are down 9% year-to-date, in line with the financial sector’s broader struggles amid a slump in dealmaking, but trailing rival JPMorgan Chase’s 9% gain.
Goldman beat consensus analyst estimates for earnings and sales in its third-quarter report Tuesday, though profits remain slimmer than investors had grown accustomed to, with the bank’s earnings per share down more than 30% year-over-year.