8x8 announces change of CEO

Dave Sipes (pictured above) has been appointed as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors of cloud communications platform provider, 8x8.

The company also reaffirmed guidance for the third quarter and full-year fiscal 2021.

Sipes was most recently COO of RingCentral, where he led go-to-market, product, and engineering and helped in the 12-year growth trajectory of the company from US$10 million to over US$1 billion in revenue.

Former CEO Vik Verma will assist the transition in an advisory role after leading the company for seven years – through both a product and business model transformation – and building an over US$500 million SaaS business, adding more than US$1.5 billion in market capitalisation.

Jaswinder Pal Singh will become the company's chairman of the board.

Singh replaces former chairman Bryan Martin, who will continue to serve on the 8x8 board. Vik Verma has retired from the board of directors.

"8x8 is participating in one of the biggest SaaS markets today, cloud communications. We believe Dave, with his operational expertise, strong industry background, and world-class go-to-market leadership, is the right leader at the right time to fully realise our potential," states Singh.

"We're thrilled to have Dave take the helm at 8x8 and are excited about our future. I'd also like to thank Vik Verma, on behalf of the board of directors, our 1,700+ team members and thousands of dedicated resellers, and recognise the incredible contributions and leadership role he has played over the past seven years to get us to this point.

"I am looking forward to leading 8x8. It's one of select SaaS businesses to reach half a billion dollars in revenue with a strong and expanding customer base," Sipes says.

"The cloud and work-from-home are transforming business communications for every employee and customer touchpoint, and have become a critical focal point for building competitive advantage for businesses today. 8x8 is well positioned with its Open Communications Platform,  which provides a wide breadth of integrated communication tools to power businesses' critical cloud communications needs. This company has the opportunity to be central to the transformation of work.

The company is reaffirming its guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 ending December 31, 2020, and the full-year fiscal 2021 ending March 31, 2021, that was previously provided on October 28, 2020.

Q3 and F2021 Financial Outlook: (all figures in US Dollars below)

• Third Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Outlook Ending December 31, 2020:
  • Total Revenue guidance in the range of $132.0 million to $133.0 million, representing approximately 11% to 12% year-over-year growth.
  • Service Revenue guidance in the range of $124.0 million to $125.0 million, representing approximately 12% to 13% year-over-year growth.
  • Non-GAAP Pre-Tax Loss guidance of approximately $3.0 million.
     
• Full-Year Fiscal 2021 Financial Outlook Ending March 31, 2021:
  • Total Revenue guidance in the range of $519.0 million to $522.0 million, representing approximately 16% to 17% year-over-year growth.
  • Service Revenue guidance in the range of $489.0 million to $492.0 million, representing approximately 18% to 19% year-over-year growth.
  • Non-GAAP Pre-Tax Loss guidance of approximately $16.0 million.