Sources: Investor pressure fuels Appsense managment rejig

Virtualisation vendor confirms arrival of new chief executive amid rumours of wider changes in face of investor pressure

Appsense has come under fire for "drastic and sudden" changes to its strategy as rumours surfaced surrounding changes to the firm's top-level management.

The virtualisation vendor confirmed to CRN that it has appointed a new chief executive, but refused to address rumours that a string of other top-level executives have left the firm following pressure from investors.

Former Vistorm boss Darron Antill, who left the reseller to head up Appsense in 2011 has left the vendor and has been replaced by Scott Arnold, the former boss of market research firm MarketTools. Appsense refused to say exactly when Antill departed, but he posted on the company blog as recently as the end of April, and the firm's management webpage was updated with incoming Arnold's details just last week.

One Appsense partner, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that other executives had also left the firm following a set of mixed results which disappointed investors. In 2011, Appsense raked in a $70m (£46m) investment from Goldman Sachs for a minority share in the company. The source suggested that Appsense has not met the investor's expectations, which drove the decision to reshuffle the top management.

He said he thought the firm's chances of going public were dead and that the moves were "very sudden and drastic, with no explanation".

Oren Taylor, CDG's director, said he would not be surprised if the management had undergone changes, and claimed he was aware of the company being under increasing pressure from investors.

He said: "They were under serious pressure because they took in the big Goldman Sachs money and there was a pressure on the board to deliver sales. They have been growing, but not hitting targets.

"With VC funding, they invest so much and they want their pound of flesh. There is growing, and there is growing according to expectations. The sales [staff] were more aggressive too, and this is a symptom of pressure from the board."

The anonymous Appsense partner added that the company's overall channel strategy has become too complicated for resellers.

He said: "Appsense is too complex and expensive for most [and] simpler solutions are needed. Hence I am starting to look at smaller, nimble players. Partner margins can be eaten up by implementing complexity.

"I think more money could be made by partners with a simpler solution. It is also true that Appsense is pivoting to mobile which has put them on a collision course with Citrix so there will be a battle for wallet share."

Rival virtualisation vendor RES Software's senior product manager Grant Tiller said that while he wished the firm well, he thought Arnold's appointment was "unusual".

"Scott is not from our industry, so for AppSense, it is an unusual hire, perhaps the first of more changes to follow. Perhaps he will bring some new ideas with him too," he said.