Citrix plans to overhaul channel as it waves off CEO

Virtualisation vendor admits it has under-utilised distributors in the past

Citrix has vowed to redouble its efforts in the channel as it begins a search for a new CEO.

Chief executive Mark Templeton announced he was planning to stand down last year after he returned from a leave of absence and today said he was retiring. He has been at the company for 21 years. The move will not take effect immediately because the Citrix board needs to find a replacement.

In a letter sent to partners and staff which was made public by the vendor, Templeton said: "It remains business as usual at Citrix and there will be no impact in how you do business with us.

"The board and I agree that now is the right time to begin the process of selecting a new leader as Citrix embarks on the next phase of development and growth. We do not know how long this will take, so while the board is driving the search process, I will remain 100 per cent focused on leading Citrix and driving value-creating change at the company. I am totally committed to ensuring a thoughtful and smooth transition and will continue in my role until we've found the best leader for the job."

The news comes as the vendor announces its second-quarter results.

For the three months to 30 June, profit at Citrix rocketed a whopping 94 per cent to $103m (£66m) on sales which crept up two per cent to $797m.

Citrix also announced that it has entered a co-operation agreement with Elliot Management, the firm which recently blasted it and its channel strategy after taking a huge chunk of shares. As part of the deal, Elliot's Jesse Cohn has been appointed to the Citrix board in a bid to achieve a "mutual goal of positioning Citrix for success and value creation".

As part of the new era at Citrix, the channel will become a higher priority, outgoing CEO Templeton said.

"I'd like to say just a few words about our channel-specific objective," he said. "As we've scaled to serve the world's largest governments and enterprises, the centre of our go-to-market programme has shifted away from the lower-touch, higher-profit revenue generated by the broader channel base we've historically served. We also believe we've under-exploited distribution partnerships around the globe that can increase our reach with lower go-to-market costs. So we're working to address our channel strategy, and we've hired a talented, worldwide channel success officer to spearhead all this.

"The commercial organisation is 100 per cent focused on driving business through and with partners, where partners actually lead the business. We think that we can modify and optimise our partner programme to actually incentivise those partners even more. And also give them some new products that will be very consistent with how they like to go to market and provide simpler solutions for the smaller and mid-market type customer. So that's what you'll see us do."