Company Cites Go-To-Market Challenges and Weakness in U.S. Federal Vertical for Revenue Decline
Blue Coat Systems, a provider of Web security and WAN optimization solutions, today announced that Gregory S. Clark has been named president and chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors. The announcement was made at the same time the company reported financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2012 which came in below expectations.
Total net revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 was $109.5 million compared with net revenue of $120.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 and $122.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. “Our first quarter results were disappointing as they came in below our expectations,” said David W. Hanna, chairman of the board of directors. “We are taking the necessary actions to reinforce our leadership position in the Web security market, while capitalizing on opportunities in the WAN optimization market based on our strong competitive advantages.”
“While we continue to address our go-to-market challenges, product revenue was also impacted by weakness in the U.S. Federal vertical,” said Gordon C. Brooks, senior vice president and chief financial officer. “This weakness in product revenue reduced our profitability for the quarter.”
Blue Coat hopes that new management can help get the company back on track and address some of these challenges. Gregory Clark will succeed president and CEO Michael J. Borman, who has left the company. Mr. Clark most recently was president and CEO of Mincom, an enterprise software company that was acquired in July by the ABB Group. Under his leadership, Mincom successfully enhanced its enterprise software offerings with cloud-based solutions, and improved its financial results and shareholder value.
Prior to joining Mincom Mr. Clark was CEO of E2open, a provider of cloud-based supply chain applications. Earlier in this career, Clark founded Dascom, Inc., a security software firm that was acquired by IBM in 1999. Dascom software became the basis of IBM’s Tivoli security product line, and Mr. Clark served as the IBM Distinguished Engineer responsible for security technology and a vice president at Tivoli Systems. He has also held senior technical and management positions at AT&T UNIX System Laboratories and Stallion Technologies.
The Blue Coat board has named board member Carol G. Mills as interim CEO until Mr. Clark’s arrival. Ms. Mills has held executive positions at technology companies including CEO of Acta Technology, EVP at Juniper Networks, and VP/GM at HP.
In a separate announcement, the company said that it has rescheduled its quarterly conference call to discuss the Company’s results for the first quarter of fiscal 2012. The conference call will now be held on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
