NEWS Coverage

WANdisco reports rise in revenue

March 08 2017

The Sheffield-based firm reported a rise of 4 per cent in revenue to $11.4m in the year ended 31 December 2016. While total bookings for the year increased 72 per cent to $15.5m up from $9m the previous year. 

Big data and cloud bookings rose 184 per cent to $7.1m, up from $2.5m in 2015, and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) bookings rose 29 per cent to $8.4m.

David Richards, chief executive officer and interim chairman of WANdisco, said: “Over the past year, as the Big Data and Cloud markets have continued to expand, we have seen global enterprises increasingly require the ability to move large volumes of data at speed across both on-premises and cloud environments. 

“WANdisco Fusion is the only solution available in the world that enables the replication of continuously changing data, whilst guaranteeing this data is continuously available, consistent and delivered with zero business disruption. 

“As a result of this significant expansion in our core Cloud markets, our total bookings increased by 72 per cent during 2016 and 97 per cent in Q4 2016. 

“Our OEM with IBM, as well as our other channel relationships, have been central in driving new business, by enabling us to take advantage of this market opportunity whilst reducing our operational cost base throughout the year. 

“This has resulted in a $11.2m reduction in overheads and a halving of the EBITDA loss from 2015 to 2016 bringing us much closer to cash flow breakeven.

“We continue to build on this momentum with a strong new business pipeline which, combined with a significantly reduced cost base together will further underpin our progress towards profitability.” 

Last autumn, the business went through a turbulent period when co-founder Mr Richards was ousted as chief executive by the Sheffield-based firm’s board only to return a week later, after he was contacted by shareholders who wanted him to stay on. 

In October, Mr Richards told The Yorkshire Post: “It was something that I thought was worth fighting for. I love the company and I love the people.” 

On the same day – October 6 – that Mr Richards was re-instated, WANdisco announced that Paul Walker, the company’s chairman, and Ian Duncan, non-executive director, had stepped down from the board with immediate effect.

In a statement, Mr Walker and Mr Duncan, said: “As independent non-executive directors, we had not considered David the right person to lead the company going forwards. 

“Since the announcement of September 29, 2016 regarding David Richards stepping down from the board, we have been informed that approximately 58 per cent of the company’s shareholders support David’s reinstatement as CEO. 

“Accordingly, we have decided to resign from the board with immediate effect.”

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