Extreme Networks Names New Sales Chief As Networking Provider Lowers Revenue Outlook

The networking specialist's leadership shakeup continues with the departure of Extreme's CRO and the promotion of its COO to chief commercial officer. At the same time, Extreme lowered its Q2 2024 revenue expectations due to 'elongated sales cycles and channel digestion.’

Networking specialist Extreme Networks said Monday that it promoted Norman Rice, the company's chief operating officer, to the role of chief commercial officer.

Rice in his COO role led the company's product life cycle and operations, global services and support. In his new position as CCO, he'll be focused on revenue growth and leading the company’s sales, partner, services and supply chain organizations, according to Extreme Networks in a statement published Monday evening.

A spokesperson for Morrisville, N.C.-based Extreme said that chief commercial officer is a new role for the company and Extreme is not planning on bringing in a new COO.

The company at the same time announced that its chief revenue officer of more than three years, Joe Vitalone, has resigned from his position but will serve in an advisory role with the company to ensure a smooth transition. Extreme will not bring in a new CRO as Rice’s new position will include overseeing sales, the spokesperson said.

Extreme's senior vice president of global channels, Scott Peterson, also left the company in November and is now serving as CRO for NaaS provider Nitel. Earlier in 2023, Extreme filled its then-empty CFO seat with Kevin Rhodes who took over from the company's former CFO Rémi Thomas who left the company in February.

In another recent executive move, Extreme Networks in December brought on Monica Kumar as its new chief marketing officer. Kumar replaced Wes Durow, Extreme’s CMO since 2020.

The company, which does the majority of its business through the channel, on Monday shared its executive news at the same time that it cut its 2024 second fiscal quarter guidance. Extreme said that it expects its second quarter revenues to be roughly $294 million to $297 million, compared to its prior outlook of $312 million to $327 million. The company also expects its annualized subscription and support revenue to be about $430 million, led by 41 percent year over year subscription growth, which would be a jump up from the 32 percent growth it saw in Q1 2024.

“Our revised second fiscal quarter outlook reflects industry headwinds of channel digestion and elongated sales cycles. In late Q2, we saw multiple large deals pushing out to future quarters,” President and CEO Ed Meyercord said in a statement.

Meyercord told CRN in November that the slowdown in orders is due to the market "digesting" new networking projects and longer decision-making time thanks to inflation and other macroeconomic issues.

Rice, for his part, joined Extreme in 2015. During his time with the company, he’s built go-to-market sales motions including building the company’s stadium and venue business, orchestrating large opportunities with Verizon and Kroger, and managing the company through a complex macro supply chain environment, according to Extreme.

“We’re at a pivotal time in Extreme’s history – successfully transitioning from a hardware-centric organization, to one that includes a thriving SaaS business. This requires us to streamline our leadership team to focus on capturing new revenue opportunities,” Meyercord said in a statement on Rice's promotion. "[Rice] has a solid understanding of our business and excellent relationships with our customers, partners and direct sellers. He’s driven some of the largest opportunities in the company’s history and has operationalized new go-to-market motions that sets us up for long-term growth.”