MobileIron, Buoyed By Strong Earnings At End Of Difficult Year, Names New CEO

Mobile device management specialist MobileIron, on the back of positive quarterly earnings released Wednesday, has named Barry Mainz as its new CEO.

Mainz will replace Bob Tinker, who helmed the Mountain View, Calif.-based vendor for eight years -- since its founding in 2007.

Mainz will serve as the company's president as well as CEO, and take a seat on the board of directors. Tinker will also remain on the board.

[Related: MobileIron Shares Plunge After Q1 Earnings Warning And CFO Resignation]

Mainz, who has a sales background, comes to MobileIron from Wind River, an Intel subsidiary he led as president that develops operating systems and software that's embedded into a wide range of industry-specific appliances and devices, including mobile devices.

MobileIron was one of the companies on the vanguard of securing and managing mobile applications and devices, helping pioneer technologies enabling enterprises to implement bring-your-own-device policies.

The company went public in June 2014, but has had a rocky road since its IPO. Over the past year, the stock has plunged from its initial $9 share price.

Partners told CRN the challenges stemmed from heightened competition in the security and mobile device management market as an array of bigger technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM and BlackBerry intensified their Enterprise Mobility Management and security solution efforts.

Weak earnings led to personnel shakeups, notably Chief Financial Officer Todd Ford's resigning in April as the company posted disappointing first-quarter financial results.

While its category has gotten crowded, MobileIron remains a leader in market researcher Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management, praised for a strategy that enables an open ecosystem of devices and mobile applications.

Wednesday's fourth-quarter revenue expectations of between $42 million and $43 million offer hope for a pickup in sales, beating guidance of $41 million to $42 million.

Jay Gordon, vice president of sales at Plano, Texas-based MobileIron partner Enterprise Mobile, told CRN that while he was surprised to hear of the leadership change, he and his colleagues believe the transition is a key component of MobileIron's strategy to remain competitive in the crowded market segment.

MobileIron is one of the last niche MDM players left in a market that has seen significant consolidation as industry giants enhance their offerings, he said, citing AirWatch's acquisition by VMWare, Citrix's acquisition of Zenprise, SAP's acquisition of Afaria and Good's acquisition by BlackBerry.

"These organizations have deep pockets and large customer install bases that make extending MDM logical and offer great opportunity for these solutions that were previously purpose-built," Gordon told CRN.

Enterprise Mobile continues to see great traction distributing the MobileIron platform to customers both migrating from other MDM solutions and deploying MDM for the first time, Gordon said.

"We are confident that MobileIron will continue to innovate its platform to remain competitive and demonstrate key differentiators that keep customers with a niche solution versus turning to larger partners that can offer consolidation," he told CRN.

On the earnings and leadership announcements, the stock climbed slightly in after-hours trading to a high of $3.85.

PUBLISHED JAN. 6, 2016