Citrix CEO departs amid sale speculation

The exiting CEO had headed up the company since 2017

Citrix's CEO has stepped down just weeks after rumours once again emerged that the company was seeking a sale.

The vendor's chief executive, David J. Henshall, has resigned after four years and will be replaced by Bob Calderoni as its interim chief executive officer and president, effective immediately.

It follows the news last month that Citrix is weighing up a potential sale after its shares dropped sharply this year.

"I would like to thank David for his many contributions to Citrix," said Calderoni.

"David played a key role in accelerating our cloud transition and has driven significant improvements in our products, with over a dozen SaaS services actively supporting more than 11 million subscribers.

"David has also been instrumental in helping the company and our employees navigate the pandemic, and successfully positioned Citrix to help customers around the world and across industries maintain business operations with minimal disruption."

Calderoni added that Citrix remains focused on transitioning the business to SaaS as it works to securely deliver a unified work experience for customers.

Moreover, Ajei Gopal, a member of the board of directors since 2017, advised the board of his decision to resign effective 5 October, 2021.

Citrix said Gopal advised the company his decision does not involve any disagreement with the company or board.

Rather Gopal, who is president and CEO of Ansys, Inc., resigned to avoid any potential conflict of interest that could arise due to Calderoni also being a member of the board of directors at Ansys.

The decline was the Florida-HQ vendor's sharpest since 2008 after posting second-quarter results that came up short of analysts' expectations.