Telecom Ramblings

Phil Koen has stepped down as CEO of Savvis (NASDAQ:SVVS - chart, news) as of Jan 8, and its chairman James Ousley has stepped in as interim CEO while the company puts together a search committee to find a permanent successor.  Koen joined the company in 2006 when it looked far different than it does today.  His reasons for leaving are not entirely clear, only that he is ready to look at new opportunities.

Since having your CEO leave abruptly a few weeks before earnings can unsettle investors, Savvis took the opportunity to reaffirm guidance for the full year 2009 with EBITDA of $215-220M and adjusted free cash flow of $40-50M.  They also mentioned that bookings for Q4 were the best in the past 6 quarters and set their earnings call for February 3.   Nothing seems out of order there.

When one seeks new opportunities, it is because one doesn’t like the opportunities that lie on the current path.  Under Koen, Savvis has been transforming itself into a cloud computing power.  Since the cloud computing space is still, err, foggy to say the least, that transformation is still incomplete.  It will be interesting to see what if any course adjustments occur in the wake of this management change.