The board of directors of Finjan Software yesterday fired founder and CEO Shlomo Touboul, and appointed Asher Polani in his place.
Finjan develops Internet information security solutions for enterprises of all sizes, and has raised $33 million since its founding. The company raised $10 million in its most recent financing round in September, when Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) invested in the company. Other investors in Finjan include Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Israel Seed Partners.
Touboul founded the company in 1996, and was replaced by American Bill Lyons in 1998. Today, Touboul says he was the one who thought at the time that the company would be able to develop more quickly with a CEO from the US. Touboul already had experience in founding a company; in 1985, he founded Shany Computers, sold a decade later to Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) for $15 million.
In 2001, Touboul resumed the CEO position at the request of investors, after the company encountered difficulties. He led the recovery process and strategic change in the company over the past two years.
As part of this process, Finjan developed new product lines, and switched from software-based products to standardized hardware-based products. Finjan also changed its business model from direct sales to working through international distribution channels. Finjan now has international sales channels all over the world.
In its announcement last night, the Finjan board said, “The board of directors believes that the changes instituted at Finjan now place the company in a jumping off position that will enable it to achieve rapid worldwide sales growth, and help make it a large and leading international company in its field. The results of the strategic changes in the company are already visible, and are reflected in growing international interest in the company’s products, and in consistent quarter-on-quarter sales growth.”
The announcement said that in view of these factors, the board had decided that the company had reached a point where the right thing to do was to put a very experienced CEO at the helm, who would lead it to the next stage of growth, and achieve the targets facing it.
Polani is a former deputy CEO of HP Israel and senior VP at Minet Information Technologies, acquired by international company SunGard Data Systems (NYSE: SDS).
Touboul said today that the company shareholders had decided to remove him from his position: “That was their decision, and I’m finishing my job with a feeling of satisfaction.” He added that in the past four years, since he returned to the company, he had turned it around. “Now it’s a company with achievements and excellent management. Four years ago, it was a company on the verge of bankruptcy, with $2.5 million in debt. We repaid the debt, brought new investors, and raised capital. Today, the company has tier-1 customers, and is very well constructed. In the past eighteen months, we worked on changing the business model in the company, and we managed to sign a giant deal that brought capital to the company. The change in model proved more successful than predicted.”
"Globes": What are your future plans?
Touboul: ”First of all, to enjoy the summer. I believe that I’ll have a new company very soon after that. I’ve had experience before as an investor in a venture capital fund that I founded with Alcatel in 1998. In view of this experience, I believe that I’m more of an entrepreneur than an investor.”
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 12, 2005