Webtrends continues to lose key staff
Eric Peterson reported that Tim Kopp the CMO of Webtrends another vastly experienced guy in the web analytics arena has left Webtrends.
I had to comment because I don’t know where the current strategy is going to lead. Looking at the track record Webtrends at least seemed to be heading in the right direction under Greg Drew. Consider than in 2001 Webtrends was bought by NetIQ for $1.1bn (a highly inflated price). It was then sold for a massive loss in 2005 to Fransisco partners for $94 million. During that time from about 2003, Greg Drew took the company up to around $80million a year in revenue and produced probably their best product suite to date, products developed and brought to market under the just-dismissed management team. The current execs can leave the company proud of their achievements especially since the Fransisco purchase. So why fix it if it aint broken?
I hear conflicting opinions from Webtrends staff past and present. Some current staff seem to be loyal and say that the management shake up is a good thing, while ex-employees range from saying things like “the time was right for me to move on” to “the ship is sinking so I got out fast”.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in the new interim CEO’s office.
