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Biz Break: Jive Software CEO Tony Zingale steps down [San Jose Mercury News](San Jose Mercury News (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 04--Today: Jive Software's CEO moves upstairs as company's sales gains continue, stock shoots higher. Also: FireEye not as fortunate, dropping fast after earnings report. The Lead: Jive CEO steps down, possible replacement named president Jive Software CEO Tony Zingale announced his retirement from the helm of the Palo Alto company Tuesday, while also detailing another quarter of improved financial performance, leading to a big stock bump. Zingale on Nov. 10 will become executive chairman of the company he has led for five years, providing an opportunity for Elisa Steele, who was promoted to president and will serve as interim CEO with help from board member Bill Lanfri until a new leader is named. Zingale said Steele could win the CEO job permanently, and expects the final decision by the end of the first quarter of 2015. "The board has a responsibility to exhaust all its choices. But Elisa is the leading candidate internally," he told Recode in an interview Tuesday. "She's been my partner at this company in rejuvenating our strategy." Jive's rejuvenation led to revenue gains of more than 28 percent in 2013 and further improvement so far in 2014. The enterprise-software company, which offers social-networking-style collaboration for business similar to Microsoft's Yammer, beat expectations in the third quarter with a net loss of $12.1 million, or 17 cents a share, on sales of $46.6 million, year-over-year sales growth of 24.7 percent. Through three quarters of 2014, revenues have increased 23.1 percent form the same period a year ago. Jive expects growth to ramp up in 2015 as it sees gains from a deal with San Jose networking giant Cisco Systems, which agreed to sell Jive's software through its channels just as rumors of a possible Jive acquisition by a larger software player started to surface. Steele said in Tuesday's conference call that Jive signed more new contracts in the third quarter than it had in a single period in nearly two years, including deals with Barnes and Noble, Thomson Reuters and Burger King. "I look forward to helping lead the company, along with Bill, into its next phase of growth," Steele added in the conference call. Steele joined Jive earlier this year as chief marketing officer in January after stints at Yahoo and NetApp, and was quickly promoted to executive vice president of marketing and products. In an interview with The Mercury News earlier this year, Steele discussed what she learned watching the negative reaction to the reign of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, whom she worked under from 2009 to 2011. "I learned you always have another chance," she said. "You can always wake up the next morning and go for it. You don't ever give up." Jive shares jumped more than 18 percent in after-hours trading following the announcement, moving close to $7 after closing with a 2.3 percent decline at $5.89. The company has struggled to live up to the price it commanded in a 2011 initial public offering, when shares sold for $12. The end of 2014 is proving to be the end of CEO runs around Silicon Valley. Last month, Advanced Micro Devices switched leaders, appointing Lisa Su to run the chip company, and Livermore semiconductor firm FormFactor announced that it would change CEOs. Outside of tech, San Francisco retailer Gap announced a CEO transition in the fourth quarter as well. SV150 market report: FireEye plunges after disappointing report Wall Street experienced a slight decline Tuesday, and Jive's sharp gains after the bell stood in stark contrast to the performance of another Silicon Valley tech company releasing earnings at the same time. Milpitas security company FireEye was battered in late trading after releasing its quarterly report, dropping more than 20 percent. FireEye's revenues came up about $2 million shy of analysts' projections at $114 million, and the company's projections for the current quarter suggest it could struggle to hit Wall Street's expectations of more than $144 million. Shares dropped to near $27 after closing with a 1.7 percent gain at $34.25. Silicon Valley biotechs performed better after releasing their earnings reports: Sunnyvale-based Pharmacyclics gained slightly, Genomic Health added about 2 percent, Impax Laboratories retreated a bit after splurging on acquisitions last quarter, and Bio-Rad held steady after releasing earnings on the heels of a bribery settlement with the U.S. government. Apple and Google headed in opposite directions while Disney united the rivals' ecosystems in a new way: Apple dropped 0.7 percent to $108.60 amid rumors that the iPad Mini will be phased out, and Google added 0.1 percent to $564.19 while dropping prices on its cloud-computing offering. GoPro's strong momentum finally waned, as the San Mateo company dropped 2.4 percent to $82.27 before announcing a new media executive's arrival after the bell. Facebook gained 2.5 percent to $75.76 while detailing an increase in law-enforcement data requests, and Yahoo added 1.6 percent to $47.08 after Alibaba's first earnings report as a public company was warmly received. Up: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Adobe, Yahoo, Nvidia, Cisco, eBay Down: Zynga, SolarCity, Pandora, SunPower, GoPro, Yelp, Tesla, Netflix, AMD The SV150 index of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies: Up 2.4, or 0.15 percent, to 1,635.14 The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Down 15.27, or 0.33 percent, to 4,623.64 The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 17.6, or 0.1 percent, to 17,383.84 And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 5.71, or 0.28 percent, to 2,012.1 –––– Sign up for the 60-Second Business Break newsletter at www.siliconvalley.com. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/jowens510. ___ (c)2014 San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |