Thread regarding Blackbaud Inc. layoffs

Annoyed still

"about this headcount"

Code for we have more reduction in plans just not today folks, nothing to see here. We know if we do it today our workforce will go nuts so for today we can operate at "about this headcount".

It's also great we can see almost 5 months into the future now using our new super duper 3 year best in class never done before anywhere renewal system. That lets us see 5 months ahead. You know it's 1st of it's kind best ever because well BB did it. It lets us see some renewal clients already in July and August.

What a joke, do they think we are all stupid. They do realize many other SaaS companies have been on multi year renewals with baked in rate increases for years.

The second some of those renewals don't come to fruition and the numbers get threatened the layoff bug will hit the ELT again in order to keep the shiny new pat myself on the back we are so awesome we will make rule of 40 in 2023 in tact.

You could hear the giddiness in the ELT voices in the earnings call. We did it look at us we're gonna do it 2 years ahead of schedule aren't we the best. It was us that did this. We had to ditch 14% of our workforce and destroy lives to get here but yippee we did it anyhow.

These guys aren't done yet with layoffs. They read the room realized they couldn't do it now even though they are itching to do it and threw the "about this headcount" in to make sure they covered their a-s for later this year.

They spewed about how great the organic growth and renewals are going. If it's going that awesome they didn't need to ax 14% of the workforce just to hit their rule of 40 2 years early. The organic growth based on what they are saying would have made it by 2025. Why the rush.

Oh yeah

They sped up the rule of 40 cr-p in order to get a better price from ClearLake.

The ELT are are about me me me and look at us look at what we did. It's like tweens running this company. Oh please please please look at me we did so great I am over here look here no why aren't you looking at them I said I am over here.

Oh and let's not gloss over the security breach information from the call. Fully settled with SEC and have about 30 million set to pay anticipated claims with another 30 million already paid. However their are other aspects that are part of the security breach that we cannot determine so you know we will update guidance throughout the year watch our SEC filings about this.

Could it be that BB settled with SEC and many clients but those pesky European and British regulators just won't go away. Oh and maybe a couple deep pocket clients not willing to settle on BB terms

My guess is the SEC settlement will be pennies on the dollar to any Euro British settlements.

Yes clearly still pi---d about the RIF.

And you should be too since clearly based on this call everything is fu----g awesome right?. If it's that great you didn't need to ruin 14% of your workforces lives.

Oh and the we looked at other companies and our severance is in line. That BS too, less than 1 week for each year worked is a ton of cr-p.

Stay annoyed everyone and protect yourself and your family. You know when number crunch time hits BB will layoff to protect the rule of 40 child so you might as well take care of you first as well.

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| 1801 views | | 4 replies (last May 3, 2023) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1mrq3Jhc

4 replies (most recent on top)

Rule of 40 or not...clearly wall street isn't as moved by the we did awesome look at our quarter and new guidance as the ELT is with it.

As shareholder value goes the stock is barely making a blip on any radars today. Trading volume is low and the stock is up by only .28 cents right now. So I don't give two sh--s about rule of 40 at BLKB as an investor. An earnings call like today beating all estimates and raising guidance should have been met with a roar of enthusiastic investing.

They have used rule of 40 as a crutch for several years now to cover for poor acquisitions and mismanagement from the top. All rule of 40 really has done is allow the company to shrink headcount and artificially prop up numbers in time for earning calls. The return on investment in BLKB stock is just not being realized from an investor point.

The $71.00 per share offer a few weeks back was a fair offer and would have shown real return value to investors.

It is time for a change in the executive levels of BLKB. One that I hope larger institutional investors and major investors like ClearLake push for. Otherwise this management team will rule of 40 the company into a shell of itself. The management needs to realize that pushing the fact BLKB is the only one stop suite for non profits is not a great plan. There are plenty of competitors out there and some of them will consolidate in the coming years and become larger more formative competitors.

Many of those companies also have a much more robust data security plan in place which was clearly lacking for years at BLKB. Who as an investor do I blame for that? The management team that's who.

BLKB leadership get yourself in gear and start to return some value to me as an investor or I may look to sink my investment funds into other worthy competitors.

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Post ID: @wts+1mrq3Jhc

The rule of 40 stuff is just a bunch of BS.

Boards and ELTs love to use rule of 40 because it tidies everything up into one shiny number for everyone.

"The Rule of 40 (originally stated as ‘the rule of 40%’) was originally popularized by two blog posts from venture capitalists Brad Feld and Fred Wilson back in 2015"

SaaS companies burn cash like a forest fire when they are growing. It was a way for venture capital investors to make sure that their investment would return 3-4x by the end run of their funds.

It's wholly outdated at this point. But when you look at the ELT it should surprise no one.

Many of the ELT cut their teeth somewhere else (ie Fiserv) or were just starting at BB when Rule of 40 was sort of the end all be all.

They don't know any different because the ELT is not agile enough to realize it's an outdated metric being dropped by many investment folks. Look at how much they touted the fact that for the 1st time they have 3 year contract renewals with price escalators each year. That's been around for a long time at other SaaS firms yet BB is just getting there.

Rule of 40 in 2023 is like getting a AAA triptik for vacation. It's an old outdated metric used by ELTs and boards that are also older and outdated.

The ELT at BB is not nimble enough to strategically pivot the company, they are old and stuck in their ways.

So you'll have to live with rule of 40 until ClearLake completes a buyout.

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Post ID: @gly+1mrq3Jhc

Not how I would have said all that but I sort of do agree.

Just look at the full earnings report for y/y.

Find the line item marked severance and then realize 4 straight quarters of layoffs. This isn't contract renewals and growth of products combined with awesome Bahamas worthy sales goals. This rule of 40 endgame was done by staff reduction.

That's how they made it

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Post ID: @kxm+1mrq3Jhc

The Rule of 40 stuff is genuinely starting to creep me out. Their obsession with it is unbelievable. I understand, SaaS companies should strive for it and achieve it, but not at the cost of everything else.

They need to look at the big picture and realize how old BB is, how big the non-profit is, and how many competitors there are. RIF over and over just to achieve this number is not organic growth. Why is 30% not enough for them? That's actually pretty good, given Blackbaud's position in the market and how long they've been around.

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Post ID: @izr+1mrq3Jhc

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