Barak Elam, CEO of CRM and compliance solutions company NICE (TASE: NICE, Nasdaq: NICE), is stepping down. Elam is the CEO of the second largest company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange by market capitalization. He has served in this position for ten years, out of his 25 years with the company, and is among the highest-paid executives among the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange companies. NICE's share price fell by more than 6% in Tel Aviv and by more than 11% in New York.
Elam is scheduled to leave his position at the end of 2024. The company says he will play an active role in finding his successor and will cooperate in the handover process, adding: “Elam will continue to serve in a strategic advisory capacity during the period.” First half of 2025.” According to its announcement of Elam’s retirement from the company, NICE says that the search for his replacement “will consider internal and external candidates to ensure the best fit for NICE.” During the period in which Elam served as CEO, NICE’s stock price increased by 450%, bringing the company to its current market value of NIS 53 billion. The company employs about 8,500 people.
Throughout his time at the helm of NICE, Elam improved the company, and of course benefited from it. His compensation was primarily stock-based. In 2023, his total compensation cost was NIS 90 million, including a salary of $1 million, a bonus of $1.1 million, a stock-based compensation cost in 2023 of $7 million, and $15.6 million in stock-based compensation. him the previous year. Years. In total (excluding 2024), the cost of appointing Elam as CEO amounted to NIS 460 million ($125.6 million).
Hybrid routing
The announcement of Elam's departure came at the same time Nice released its first quarter financial statements. Quarterly results are good, but guidance for the rest of the year is mixed. NICE reported non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.58 on revenue of $659.3 million. The consensus analyst estimate was for EPS of $2.45 on revenue of $655.4 million. This represents 27% growth in earnings per share and 13% growth in revenue compared to the first quarter of 2023. Revenue from the cloud segment grew 27% to $468.4 million.
For the second quarter, NICE expects revenue of $657-667 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.53-2.63. The mid-range of guidance, $662 million revenue and $2.58 EPS, is below analyst estimates of $667.2 million revenue, but above EPS estimates of $2.52.
For 2024 as a whole, NICE expects revenues between $1.7`5 and $2.735 billion, and earnings per share of between $10.53 and $10.73. The mid-range of $2.725 billion in revenue and $10.63 earnings per share is below analyst revenue estimates of $2.73 billion, but above the earnings per share estimate of $10.51. NICE did not explain the expected weakness in revenues.
sincere
Unlike leaders of other tech companies, Elam has not been reticent to express his opinions on topical issues. In 2018, for example, he wrote on his LinkedIn account that Nice employees would not fly on El Al after an incident in which female passengers were asked to change places on a flight to accommodate the requirements of Haredi passengers. “At NICE, we do not deal with companies that discriminate against race, gender or religion. NICE will not fly @EL AL Israel Airlines until it changes its practices and actions that discriminate against women,” his post read.
Last year, as the government attempted to advance its judicial reform programme, Elam was among the first to warn of the potential damage to the local industry. “Upcoming legislation to dismantle Israel’s judicial system will have serious and irreversible effects on the country’s standing as a business hub. CEOs and boards of technology companies have a fiduciary duty to protect intellectual property and key underlying assets, and will only entrust those in countries where It has a strong and independent judiciary.”
Elam led a turnaround at NICE, a process that included major acquisitions and shifted the focus of its activity to the cloud. The most recent acquisition was in late 2023, when Nice announced that it had bought the American company LiveVox, a developer of artificial intelligence-based products for proactive customer communications, for $350 million. inContact's largest acquisition was in 2016, for $940 million.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on May 16, 2024.
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