CalAmp Corp. added two new directors—Jason Cohenour and Scott Arnold—with plenty of tech experience.
“Jason I’ve known for years—I’ve always had a lot of respect for him,’’ Chief Executive Michael Burdiek told the Business Journal.
Arnold, meanwhile, has a “really solid Silicon Valley software pedigree,” he said.
Kimberly Alexy, on the boards of Alteryx Inc. and Western Digital Corp., will step down at CalAmp’s next annual meeting on July 24 after serving for 11 years. The company said her departure isn’t the result of any disagreement. After her departure, the board will have nine members.
Cohenour for 13 years was chief executive of Sierra Wireless Inc. (Nasdaq: SWIR), a British Columbia-based company with a $448 million market cap. He led the company through a multiyear transformation from a mobile computing pure play to a provider of intelligent wireless products for the Internet of Things, or IoT, where many different products are connected wirelessly. The company reported $794 million in sales last year, up 30% from 2015.
Arnold, president of Shutterfly Enterprise, a subsidiary of Shutterfly Inc. (Nasdaq: SFLY), was previously chief executive at AppSense until it was sold in 2016 for an undisclosed price to Landesk, a Thoma Bravo company.
CalAmp is best known for tracking vehicles through products like LoJack, along with other IoT and telematics products.
SaaS Focus
The board newcomers “align perfectly with our strategy” based on a recently increased international presence due to acquisitions, as well as a faster transformation to a recurring revenue model for software as a service, or SaaS, said Burdiek, whose company (Nasdaq: CAMP) is valued at about $345 million.
Such software is typically delivered and maintained via the internet rather than traditional installation by a technician.
The company recently made three acquisitions: LoJack Mexico, Synovia Solutions and Tracker UK, totaling about $76 million on a combined basis.
“These acquisitions are a stepping stone for CalAmp, marking an anticipated boost to the company’s recurring revenue from SaaS services to over $30 million a quarter by the second half of the current fiscal year,” Burdiek said.
He said the company will have its hands full with the three acquisitions, and as for any future purchases: “You never can predict when an opportunity is going to arise.’’
Burdiek said the company currently has over 1,300 employees, a number that should stay about stable over the next 12 months, though natural attrition and some redundancies are still possible.
CalAmp’s revenue declined less than 1% in 2018 to $363.8 million.
Analysts are projecting it will climb 3% to $375 million this year and 6.7% next year.
Shares are down about 29% since April 30 when it reported fourth-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ consensus estimate.
