DocuSign’s (DOCU) New CEO Is A Step In The Right Direction To Ignite A Turnaround
2:33 pm Monday, September 26th, 2022
With the initial excitement gone, shares of DocuSign (DOCU) struggle to ink any meaningful gains today after the cloud-based eSignature company named a new CEO. DOCU tapped former Google (GOOG) executive Allan Thygesen to take the reins starting October 10 after its former CEO Dan Springer agreed to part ways in late June.
Shares of DOCU have endured a lengthy downward trend since December 2021 after the stock took a beating following disappointing OctQ earnings, which showed demand that was pulled forward during the pandemic was slowing down considerably. Shares currently sit over 65% lower on the year and over 80% from record highs.
Clearly, Allan Thygesen is taking the helm during a tumultuous time for DOCU. However, if his previous experience at Google is any indication, he may be what DOCU needs to turn the ship around.
Starting in 2017, Thygesen was President, Americas & Global Partners, at Google, where he led the company’s advertising business in North and South America, which make up over half of Google’s total revs. During Thygesen’s tenure, Google’s overall advertising business exploded, shooting up over 100% from FY17 to FY21, partly a reflection of solid leadership.
As an outsider stepping into the leadership role at DOCU, Thygesen may also be more adept at making difficult decisions that might have to be done to spark a turnaround.
DOCU has a lot of work ahead of it to get its shares back up to 2021 levels. However, as a market leader in the eSignature business, DOCU remains well-positioned for a turnaround, and we see a CEO shakeup as a step in the right direction. By leading Google’s ad business for half a decade, Thygesen has insight into market trends, which could help steer DOCU in a direction to boost billings growth, which has fallen off a cliff lately, expected to grow only 6% yr/yr in FY23 compared to +37% in FY22 and +56% in FY21.
