SANTA CRUZ, Calif.,
Aug. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --
Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE: PLT) ("Poly" or the "Company"), a global
communications company that powers meaningful human connection and
collaboration, today announced the appointment of Dave Shull as President, Chief Executive Officer
and a member of the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board"),
effective September 8, 2020. Mr.
Shull succeeds Robert Hagerty, who
has served as Interim Chief Executive Officer since February 2020. Mr. Hagerty will continue in his
role as Chairman of the Board, and resume his membership on the
Nominating and Governance and Strategy Committees, as well as his
role as Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee.
Marv Tseu will continue in his role
as Vice Chairman of the Board.
"Dave is a technology veteran whose global operations and
telecommunications expertise, together with his extensive
leadership experience and fresh insights, make him an outstanding
leader for Poly," said Mr. Hagerty. "Poly's rich technology
history, diverse end markets ranging from offices and call centers
to consumers, and proven focus on excellence in innovation mean
that we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. The addition of
an enthusiastic, creative thinker like Dave is, in the Board's
view, a recipe for long-term success and growth. On behalf of the
Board, I am pleased to welcome Dave to the Poly family."
"The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world for all of us –
especially how we interact and connect with others, both
professionally and personally," said Mr. Shull. "Poly has been
leading the world for decades in connecting teams wherever and
however they want. Its world-class audio, video, and software
engineers are focused on creating the best communication endpoints
that sound great and deliver amazing video, and are also
consistently reliable and manageable for the most demanding users.
We expect the fundamental shift to remote work and to the cloud
will endure well beyond the pandemic, and the market opportunities
created by the work-from-anywhere revolution are significant and
exciting. This is a pivotal time in Poly's history, and I am
excited to lead this talented team during this transformational
period."
About Dave Shull
Mr.
Shull most recently served as President and CEO of TiVo
Corporation, where he gained significant consumer hardware
experience and reinvigorated the image of the TiVo brand through a
new corporate narrative and a cutting-edge streaming product. Under
Mr. Shull's leadership, TiVo's adjusted EBITDA grew 55% from Q1
2019 to Q2 2020. Prior to leading TiVo, he served as CEO of The
Weather Channel. Mr. Shull brings over 15 years of senior
leadership experience in digital media, commercial marketing,
operations, and telecommunications. He also brings extensive global
experience in operational transformation, complex business
partnerships, corporate development and capital markets. Prior to
serving as CEO of The Weather Channel, he held various executive
roles at DISH Network/EchoStar for 10 years, including Executive
Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Senior Vice President,
Programming, Senior Vice President and Managing Director,
Asia Pacific, and Vice President,
Operations. Mr. Shull holds an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Oxford University.
About Poly
Plantronics, Inc. ("Poly" – formerly
Plantronics and Polycom) (NYSE: PLT) is a global communications
company that powers meaningful human connection and collaboration.
Poly combines legendary audio expertise and powerful video and
conferencing capabilities to overcome the distractions, complexity
and distance that make communication in and out of the workplace
challenging. Poly believes in solutions that make life easier when
they work together and with our partners' services. Our headsets,
software, desk phones, audio and video conferencing, analytics and
services are used worldwide and are a leading choice for every kind
of workspace. For more information visit www.Poly.com.
Poly, the propeller design, and the Poly logo are trademarks of
Plantronics, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
Forward Looking Statements Safe Harbor
This press
release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including
quotations of management and statements relating to our intentions,
beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations
that are subject to many risks and uncertainties. Such
forward-looking statements and the associated risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to: (i) our beliefs with
respect to the length and severity of the COVID-19 (coronavirus)
outbreak, and its impact across our businesses, our operations and
global supply chain, including (a) our inability to source
component parts from key suppliers in sufficient quantities
necessary to meet the high demand for certain product lines,
including our Enterprise Headsets, which negatively impacted our
sales during the quarter; and continued uncertainty and potential
impact on future quarters if these sourcing constraints continue
and/or price volatility occurs, which could continue to negatively
affect our profitability and/or market share, (b) our expectations
that the virus has caused and will continue to cause, an increase
in customer and partner demand, including increased demand in
collaboration endpoints due to a global, work from home workforce,
(c) expectations related to our voice product lines, as well as our
services attachment rate for such products, which have been, and
may continue to be, negatively impacted as companies have delayed
returning their workforces to offices in many countries due to
uncertainties related to the continued impact of COVID-19; (d)
expectations related to our ability to fulfill the backlog
generated by supply constraints during the quarter, to timely
supply the number of products to fulfill current and future
customer demand, including expectations that our manufacturing
facility in Tijuana, Mexico will continue production at the
capacity necessary to meet such demand, (e) the impact of the virus
on our distribution partners, resellers, end-user customers and our
production facilities, including our ability to obtain alternative
sources of supply if our production facility or other suppliers are
impacted by future shut downs, (f) the impact if global or regional
economic conditions deteriorate further, on our customers and/or
partners, including increased demand for pricing accommodations,
delayed payments, delayed deployment plans, insolvency or other
issues which may increase credit losses, and (g) risks related to
restrictions or delays in global return to worksites as a result of
COVID-19, which continues to impact our employees worldwide and our
customers, which has negatively impacted our voice product lines
for the quarter, and restricted customer engagement; and (h) the
complexity of the forecast analysis and the design and operation of
internal controls; and (ii) our belief that we can manufacture or
supply products in a timely manner to satisfy perishable demand;
(iii) expectations related to our customers' purchasing decisions
and our ability to match product production to demand, particularly
given long lead times and the difficulty of forecasting unit
volumes and acquiring the component parts and materials to meet
demand without having excess inventory or incurring cancellation
charges; (iv) risks associated with significant and abrupt changes
in product demand which increases the complexity of management's
evaluation of potential excess or obsolete inventory; (v) risks
associated with the bankruptcy or financial weakness of
distributors or key customers, or the bankruptcy of or reduction in
capacity of our key suppliers; (vi) risks associated with the
potential interruption in the supply of sole-sourced critical
components, our ability to move to a dual-source model, and the
continuity of component supply at costs consistent with our plans,
which has negatively impacted in the quarter and may continue to
impact our ability to timely supply product to meet our customer
demand; (vii) expectations related to our services segment
revenues, particularly as we introduce new generation, less
complex, product solutions, or as companies shift from on premises
to work from home options for their workforce, which may result in
decreased demand for our professional, installation and/or managed
service offerings; (viii) expectations that our current cash on
hand, additional cash generated from operations, together with
sources of cash through our credit facility, either alone or in
combination with our election to suspend our dividend payments,
will meet our liquidity needs during and following the unknown
duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; (ix) expectations
relating to our ability to generate sufficient cash flow from
operations to meet our debt covenants and timely repay all
principal and interest amounts drawn under our credit facility as
they become due; (x) risks associated with our channel partners'
sales reporting, product inventories and product sell through since
we sell a significant amount of products to channel partners who
maintain their own inventory of our products; (xi) our efforts to
execute to drive sales and sustainable profitable revenue growth;
(xii) our expectations for new products launches, the timing of
their releases and their expected impact on future growth and on
our existing products; (xiii) our belief that our new Partner
Program will drive growth and profitability for both us and our
partners through the sale of our product, services and solutions;
(xiv) risks associated with forecasting sales and procurement
demands, which are inherently difficult, particularly with
continuing uncertainty in regional and global economic conditions;
(xv) uncertainties attributable to currency fluctuations, including
fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and/or new or greater
tariffs on our products; (xvi) our expectations regarding our
ability to control costs, streamline operations and successfully
implement our various cost-reduction activities and realize
anticipated cost savings under such cost-reduction initiatives;
(xvii) expectations relating to our quarterly and annual earnings
guidance, particularly as economic uncertainty, including, without
limitation, uncertainty related to the continued impact of
COVID-19, the macro-economic and political climate and other
external factors, puts further pressure on management judgments
used to develop forward looking financial guidance and other
prospective financial information; (xviii) expectations related to
GAAP and non-GAAP financial results for the second quarter and full
Fiscal Year 2021, including net revenues, adjusted EBITDA, tax
rates, intangibles amortization, diluted weighted average shares
outstanding and diluted EPS; (xix) our expectations of the impact
of the acquisition of Polycom as it relates to our strategic vision
and additional market and strategic partnership opportunities for
our combined hardware, software and services offerings; (xx) our
beliefs regarding the UC&C market, market dynamics and
opportunities, and customer and partner behavior as well as our
position in the market, including risks associated with the
potential failure of our UC&C solutions to be adopted with the
breadth and speed we anticipate; (xxi) our belief that the
increased adoption of certain technologies and our open
architecture approach has and will continue to increase demand for
our solutions; (xxii) expectations related to the micro and
macro-economic conditions in our domestic and international markets
and their impact on our future business; (xxiii) our forecast and
estimates with respect to tax matters, including expectations with
respect to utilizing our deferred tax assets; (xxiv) our
expectations related to building strategic alliances and key
partnerships with providers of collaboration tools and platforms to
drive revenue growth and market share; and (xxv) our expectations
regarding pending and potential future litigation, in addition to
other matters discussed in this press release that are not purely
historical data. Such forward-looking statements are based on
current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially
from the forward-looking statements.
We do not assume any obligation to update or revise any such
forward-looking statements, whether as the result of new
developments or otherwise.
For more information concerning these and other possible risks,
please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on June
8, 2020, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on July
29, 2020, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, as well as recent press releases.
INVESTOR CONTACT:
Mike
Iburg
Vice President, Investor Relations
(831) 458-7533
MEDIA CONTACT:
Edie
Kissko
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
(213) 369-3719
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SOURCE Poly