Optiva Q1 income climbs but Royston resigns as CEO over compensation

Toronto, Canada-based Optiva Inc. reports that Danielle Royston has given notice of her resignation as chief executive officer of the company. The company declared a decline in Q1 revenues, however net income for the quarter increased.

Optiva, which specialises in providing communications service providers (CSPs) worldwide with cloud-native revenue management software on the public cloud, reported that Q1 revenues fell by US$5.9 million compared to the same quarter in 2019. According to the company, this was primarily due to the discontinuation of software, support and subscription sales to customers who had previously notified Optiva of their exit.

Net income for the quarter rose to $0.8 million compared to $0.5 million in the corresponding period in 2019. The increase in earnings was mainly attributed by Optiva to a significant decrease in the valuation of the Series A warrants resulting in a non-cash finance income of approximately $9.8 million.

Ms. Royston’s resignation will be effective on August 9th, 2020, following a 90-day notice period. She will continue to serve as CEO through the notice period. A statement from Optiva says, that “her resignation followed recent compensation requests from Ms. Royston that the board of directors of the company declined to meet.”

The board of directors will be engaging an executive search firm to conduct a search for a new CEO.

“We thank Danielle for her service during a time of unprecedented change and competition in the communications sector of the technology industry,” says Scott Brighton, chairman of the Board. “We will be expeditiously moving forward to choose a new chief executive officer, and we wish Danielle the best in her future endeavors.”

Optiva, formerly Redknee Solutions, Inc, focuses on providing CSPs worldwide with cloud-native revenue management software on the public cloud. Operators and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) can integrate its charging engine into a business support systems (BSS) stack or deploy its fully managed, end-to-end, SaaS-based suite. Established in 1999, Optiva Inc. is on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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