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Biz Break: Imperva names new CEO with history of acquisitions [San Jose Mercury News :: ]
[August 18, 2014]

Biz Break: Imperva names new CEO with history of acquisitions [San Jose Mercury News :: ]


(San Jose Mercury News (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 18--Today: Imperva replaces founder Shlomo Kramer as CEO with Anthony Bettencourt, who has led his last two companies through acquisitions. Also: Apple nears elusive $100 share price.



The Lead: Imperva names new CEO after stock plunge earlier this year Redwood City data-center security company Imperva named a new CEO Monday, replacing its founder at the helm with a technology executive who has led his last two companies through acquisitions.

Anthony Bettencourt was appointed president and CEO of Imperva, replacing Shlomo Kramer, an Israeli cybersecurity pioneer who founded the company in 2002 and led it through a 2011 initial public offering.


"I look forward to working with Anthony and am confident that he is the right person to lead Imperva on the next stage of growth," Kramer, who will remain at Imperva as chairman and chief strategy officer, said in Monday's announcement.

Bettencourt arrives after leading San Francisco software startup Coverity through an acquisition by Mountain View's Synopsys. Before that, the Santa Clara University grad was the CEO of another software startup, Verity, which was acquired by Autonomy in 2005.

"I am very pleased to be joining Imperva, and look forward to capitalizing on the opportunities at Imperva for Imperva shareholders, employees and partners," Bettencourt said in Monday's announcement.

Bettencourt worked for Autonomy from 2005 to 2010, leading software products Zantaz and Interwoven after they were acquired by the British software giant. Autonomy was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for more than $10 billion, and HP has subsequently accused the company of misrepresenting its financial performance and written off $8 billion of that price, $5.5 billion due to alleged accounting irregularities.

Imperva has been subject to rumors of acquisitions, especially after its stock plunged more than 40 percent earlier this year, when the company reduced sales forecasts. FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said earlier this year that Imperva's security for data centers would especially make sense for Microsoft, which sells cloud services.

"We continue to view them as a top acquisition candidate in cyber security," Ives reiterated in an email Monday. "While Imperva has hit some speed bumps, it appears management and the board are leading this story in a positive direction." Imperva cracked the top 150 Silicon Valley technology companies for the first time this year, landing at No. 144 by boosting sales 32 percent in 2013 to $138 billion. Imperva's growth rate dropped to less than 17 percent in the first six months of 2014, however, with first-half revenues totaling $70 billion.

Imperva went public at $18 a share in 2011, a price that had nearly quadrupled in open trading before its plunge earlier this year, part of a mass re-pricing of young Silicon Valley stocks. Shares gained 0.6 percent to $27.52 ahead of Monday's announcement.

SV150 market report: Apple nears $100 on strong day for tech stocks Wall Street was propelled by Silicon Valley technology stocks Monday, with the SV150 jumping 1.1 percent as Apple shares gained ahead of an expected iPhone launch.

Apple pushed as high as $99.37 but again came up short in its climb toward $100, closing with a 1.2 percent increase at $99.16. RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani drummed up excitement for the iPhone 6 launch event expected in September, writing in a note that expectations for the next Apple smartphone -- expected to have a larger screen than previous versions -- are too low. "We think this iPhone cycle will be more material than prior ones largely because an increased screen size should drive a material upgrade cycle and position Apple to pick up share vs. the Android ecosystem," Daryanani wrote, reporting that Apple is planning to manufacture 70 million to 80 million iPhones, an increase from the last cycle. Apple also updated developers' beta version of its new desktop operating system, part of a new openness in the Cupertino company's beta testing program.

Google gained 1.5 percent to $592.70 after news of the acquisition of Jetpac leaked late last week; the Mountain View search giant will celebrate the 10 year anniversary of its landmark IPO this week. Tesla Motors fell 0.8 percent to $259.94 as a new Silicon Valley competitor arose and states continued to vie for the Gigafactory.

Up: Zynga, GoPro, SunPower, Yahoo, Workday, VMware, AMD, Yelp, Splunk, Google, Netflix, EA, Adobe, Salesforce, Nvidia, Facebook, Gilead, Apple Down: Applied Materials, Tesla, Pandora Media, NetApp, LinkedIn The SV150 index of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies: Up 16.74, or 1.07 percent, to 1,587.36 The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 43.39, or 0.97 percent, to 4,508.31 The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 175.83, or 1.06 percent, to 16,838.74 And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Up 16.68, or 0.85 percent, to 1,971.74 Sign up for the 60-Second Business Break newsletter at www.siliconvalley.com. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/jowens510.

___ (c)2014 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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