Following on from Clarity Commerce’s news this morning that it had received an offer for the company (see An ‘Enigmatic’ offer for Clarity), it has since released another couple of announcements.
Firstly, its CEO, Ken Smith, has tendered his resignation with immediate effect, and this has been accepted by the Board. Smith has been CEO since September 2007. A chartered accountant, Smith has had 23 years working in the IT sector, including a ten-year stint at Alphameric from 1986-1996 (see Time weaves on for Alphameric), where he spent four years as the company’s Finance Director. It’s interesting that he has decided to move on now. Based on his career history we doubt this is the last we will see of him in our industry.
Then at lunchtime, Clarity released a trading update. Considering the aforementioned offer on the table comes from Jon Moulton’s Better Capital, it’s no surprise that the statement makes pretty gloomy reading; Moulton is renowned for buying troubled companies with the aim of turning them round. Clarity states that it continues to operate within limited cash resources and is taking all possible actions to minimise cash consumption. This includes progressing with its redundancy programme, which will be completed by the end of the month removing a further £1 million from the cost base. Moulton to the rescue....?