I sometimes wonder how it is possible that a company which in my opinion was very solid got itself into this situation?
On the other hand, regrets won't help anything, maybe it's best to leave as soon as possible and not think about Riverbed anymore.
13 replies (most recent on top)
I for one waited too long to leave. I was making a good living and enjoying life. But deep down I knew the company that I worked for was a big hot mess. One day I decided enough is enough and got myself out there and moved on. No regrets and no look-backs. I hadn’t even visited this site since leaving until the day that magical BK letter showed up in my mailbox. I was thoroughly confused why a company I left years ago (on my terms - no TB RIF package for me) was sending me this legal notice.
Outside of the execs who are clearly there for the big $$$ bonuses for doing nothing but finding a suitor to chop things into little pieces, there are two types of people left at Riverbed. Type 1 have been there way too long and the market has passed them by. They are not marketable or employable anywhere else so they sit at this sad company hoping their direct deposits continue to roll in on time. Type 2 are the D players (at best) that get recruited. (There’s a reason you got this job.) These type 2 people have horrific career tracks, sketchy LI work histories and were clearly performance’s out at multiple places. They are the one whose resumes get passed over time and time again at any reputable place they apply. It’s sad but these type 2 think they are more than they are and what’s even sadder is the type 1 that hired them think they hired their A team. Face it, what’s left is a joke. TB has extracted their $$$ and it’s their time to move you to a PE that buys distressed assets and laugh as they look at their spreadsheet of the money they made. No one takes you seriously. No one considers your products current not alone less relevant.
Replying to the original post: companies like this fail as the result of YEARS of bad decisions. It isn't just a couple bad quarters or even years, it isn't just that they lose market share, it isn't just that sales performance stagnates, it isn't just having one bad CXO for a bit, it isn't just losing some key partner relationships, etc.
It takes all of those things and more, happening continuously over a long period of time. As people here point out, Riverbed started making demonstrably poor decisions at least as far back as 2014. And I'm not talking about a bad bet here or a bad M&A there. I'm talking about constant, cascading failures: the old guard defending WanOP against all new ideas; bringing in a bunch of Cisco bozos at the senior & executive levels; retaining poor senior & executive talent because of friendships/networks; having a finance mindset rather than a product mindset; arrogance and presumption about the strength of the name/brand; growing by acquisition rather than organically; etc.
And then reinforcing these over and over, with yes-men and sycophants, with people willing to lie cheat and steal for the next promotion. It's a momentum game, and once things were going downhill they just accelerated. And now here we are, 4, 5, 6, 7 years later.
I'm still surprised TB hasn't brought a legal suit against the executives & senior leaders from 2015 for flim-flamming them but good.
Holup. Are you telling me the $100m is being used to keep the lights on? Because if that’s the case, this is pretty grim.
I was under the impression that the current EBITDA is floating the business where the $100m is party dollars.
They can barely make payroll but can invest in R&D? Really?
They have a balance sheet in the RSA at the very end. Looks like an increase of around $10M is planned for R&D next year.
I would be surprised if anything of the $100m can find a way to engineering. This money is needed to recapitalize the company. After the financial restructuring there will be less debt, but als no money in the bank. The $100m are needed to keep the company running. And to calm down business partners, that Riverbed can pay the bills after the financial restructuring.
Engineering should be celebrating the $100m because it’ll most likely go to them to develop something new and shiny. But eng is being run by a bunch of id--t mgmt straight out of 1980 that only knows how to look up modern buzzwords and pose as if they know what they’re doing.
What made things worse on the engineering side was when we hired DM. He was NOT an engineering leader at all, he was a sales/marketing person.
TB is a private equity firm and everything they did was centered around maximizing EBITDA over all else. They tried to create some sparks with some terrible cheapo acquisitions, none of which worked out because TB isn't technical enough to know better.
Riverbed died in 2015 with the TB takeover, but was running on fumes for a few years. Post-2019, it's been grim. You know a tech company is doomed when they stop developing the products. Writing has been on the wall.
DS can only waste another $100 mln. You better leave asap.
The market optimization market commodotized, the visibility markets moved. Rvbd did not execute in sd-wan and was afraid to strongly pivot/adapt on visibility. It's too late now.
One may wonder why a failing leader can fail his way to the top of the mountain. And the answer is because he’s part of TB. It’s all nepotism.
I give zero F about the $100m because unless it can be used to properly create a marketable product, it will be wasted.
When Riverbed went private all public shareholders were paid off by Thoma/other-investors not with real cash - but with debt. The debt was huge and Riverbed shrunk and wasn't able to pay it pack. NPS took a sky dive - customers fled - new customers were hard to come by. DS was brought in as Chief Customer Officer to raise NPS - failed to do so and instead was promoted to CRO/COO and eventually CEO (failing at each step along the way). Products became less relevant to market - money spent in all the wrong places - more shrinking and even less capability to pay back debt. No choice but to go bankrupt - clear some debt - start over with new hope. Strategy? Need some of that quick.