RingCentral has announced the departure of Tarek Robbiati, who will leave the CEO role and Board of Directors with immediate effect.
The departure comes by mutual agreement, and RingCentral stressed that the change is unrelated to internal disagreements.
However, it has paved the way for Vlad Shmunis, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of RingCentral, to resume his full-time role as CEO – a spot he handed over to Robbiati in September.
Indeed, RingCentral made that original announcement while citing Robbiati’s financial nous, as the former Chief Financial Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Sprint.
As such, the provider’s probable plan was for Robbiati to keep the RingCentral ship running smoothly, freeing up Shumnis to move into a more visionary role.
There, he could dream up the next best enterprise innovations and re-establish his reputation as the “Godfather of UCaaS“.
Yet, despite a seemingly strong earnings update in November – where RingCentral edged closer towards profitability while maintaining double-digit revenue growth – that plan soon bit the dust.
For his part, however, Robbiati bid RingCentral a fond farewell. “I have the utmost respect for the RingCentral team,” he said. “I wish the company and its people the very best.
RingCentral has tremendous products, and I believe the company will continue to deliver for its customers and shareholders.
While Robbiati’s exit after only three months comes as a surprise, so did his entrance.
Indeed, RingCentral’s stock plummeted ten percent on the news, and – after this latest announcement –history repeated itself.
Thankfully, though, it fell by a smaller 6.5 percent this time around.
Shumnis: I’m Fully Committed to RingCentral
Despite the drop in RingCentral’s share price, Shumnis moved quickly to reassure investors of the opportunity that awaits the business.
“We are at a tremendous inflection point in our industry,” he said. “It is critical that our product and innovation strategy drives all that we do and is closely aligned with how we go to market.
We have a world-class team, battle-proven technology, and a clear roadmap with a large and untapped market opportunity ahead of us.
“I am fully committed to RingCentral and am confident in our ability to drive sustainable, profitable growth moving forward that is rooted in our core values of trust, innovation, and partnerships.”
Much of that growth may come in the contact center market, following the recent launches of its RingCX CCaaS platform and RingSense conversational intelligence solution.
The former – only released in November – is seemingly gaining traction, with RingCentral recently securing a 1,000+ seat contact center megadeal for the platform.
Moreover, Shumnis revealed that 50+ companies had selected RingCX – even before its general release – and that the vendor had many more customers in the pipeline.
That is exciting news for the business as UCaaS – where RingCentral rivals Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Webex – becomes increasingly saturated and – to an extent – commoditized.
As RingCentral manages this transition, Rob Theis, Lead Independent Director of RingCentral, rubberstamped his faith in Shumnis’s leadership.
“RingCentral’s strategic product vision and operations are closely linked, and we determined it is best to have one leader with oversight for all aspects of the organization,” he said.
As RingCentral’s founder and long-term CEO, Vlad has overseen the company’s growth from inception to a leading SaaS provider with over $2.2 billion in revenue.
“We are confident that he will be effective in his return as CEO and will continue delivering for all our stakeholders. We appreciate Tarek’s contributions and wish him well.”
Despite his return to the CEO role, Shmunis will remain Chairman of the Board.
Lastly, RingCentral has reaffirmed its Q4 and full-year revenue guidance, offering a final hint that the move had little to do with RingCentral’s financial performance during Robbiati’s short CEO stint.
