Blue Coat CEO: We're Not For Sale
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (
) -- Despite
, security and networking specialist
Blue Coat Systems
(BCSI)
is not on the block, according to the company's new CEO.
"I came to this company to grow it, double its revenue and stay independent," Mike Borman, the Blue Coat CEO, told
TheStreet
. "My job is to build this company to a billion-dollar company, and that's what we're working on."
Mike Borman, CEO Blue Coat Systems |
Blue Coat, which builds hardware and software for securing Web communications and delivering enterprise applications over wide area networks (WANs), has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks.
The Silicon Valley firm is one of a number of security companies like
Check Point
(CHKP) - Get Report
and
ArcSight
(ARST)
that have been touted as potential acquisition bait in the aftermath of
Intel's
(INTC) - Get Report
$7.7 billion
McAfee
(MFE)
deal.
With investors eagerly watching to see whether tech heavyweights such as
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
and
Dell
(DELL) - Get Report
open their wallets, there has been speculation that Blue Coat and rival
Websense
(WBSN)
could make attractive targets.
Borman, who
took over from Brian NeSmith as Blue Coat CEO earlier this month
, clearly has other plans. The Blue Coat supremo would not give a time frame for reaching the billion-dollar revenue mark, but he did say that shareholders can expect a boost -- eventually. "Doubling the company's revenue would drive the stock more than double," he said.
Recent weeks have been something of a rollercoaster for Blue Coat investors. The stock took a pounding when the company put out mixed first-quarter results last month, but regained ground when former
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
software executive Borman was names as CEO on Sep.1. Currently trading around $21, the firm's stock is down 55 cents, or 2.55% this year.
Blue Coat sells its products into 83% of
Fortune's
500 and counts
British Telecom
(BT)
,
Merck
(MRK) - Get Report
and the NFL's
Green Bay Packers
as customers, but Borman says there is still plenty of work to do.
"There was some
first-quarter revenue growth, but it probably wasn't as much as analysts would have liked or the company would have liked," he explained. "My instincts tell me that, in both the WAN optimization and the security space, we have additional opportunities to improve our go-to-market effectiveness."
The CEO, who was previously at the helm of data center specialist
Avocent
, said that he plans to breathe new life into both Blue Coat's direct sales and its channel.
"We have the capability out there, we just need to get it more pervasive, more skilled and more energized," he explained. More specifically, Borman is focusing on the company's WAN optimization brand image and marketing, as well as Blue Coat's European business. "My sense is that we will need to improve our overall go-to-market over there," he added.
--Written by James Rogers in New York.
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