New CEO sees no major changes for BMC
The timing couldn't be better for Bob Beauchamp in his new role as president and CEO of BMC Software (Nasdaq: BMCS).
"The company is about to have a good quarter, and as with any good company, the board is ... all committed to our current strategy," Beauchamp said Friday, in an telephone interview with ZD Inter@ctive Investor. "Nothing different than we were a year ago, in terms of what we want to do."
BMC on Friday announced the 41-year-old Beauchamp would replace Max Watson as president and CEO. The news comes just a day after BMC shares rose on higher expectations for the third quarter.
"We executed better internally" in the December quarter, Beauchamp said. "And as an industry we're seeing a certain resurgence."
Beauchamp steps into the top spot following a difficult year that saw slowing sales for all major vendors of software for mainframes. Despite BMC's rosy preannouncement this week, some analysts believe the company remains too dependent on IBM mainframes.
But Beauchamp -- who was BMC's senior vice president for product management and development -- doesn't divide the company into "mainframe" and "client-server" lines of business.
"We view it all as enterprise computing," said Beauchamp, who declined to directly comment on analyst concerns. "It (IBM's offering) is just another server for our customers."
About 54 percent of BMC's new license revenues in the third quarter came from distributed systems, Beauchamp said.
BMC's overall strategy will stay the same, although some details may change, Beauchamp said. "A new manager is going to put his stamp on an organization obviously, but I don't want to point to anything yet," he said.
"I don't anticipate a major strategy shift," Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund told Reuters. "Max has done a good job for a long time. I think it's unlikely to have any significant near-term impact on the stock. They've got someone capable taking his place."
There's no need for a drastic shift because BMC is thriving and gaining market share against companies such as Computer Associates (NYSE: CA), Beauchamp said.
"CA is a good, aggressive competitor," Beauchamp said. "But I believe we're winning."
Although BMC gave no signs before Friday that Watson would step down after 11 years as CEO, Wall Street took the executive change in stride. BMC stock on Friday fell 0.5 to 21.8125 -- a relatively mild reaction compared to the broad market downturn.
Although shares of BMC remain 75 percent below their 52-week high, Beauchamp said he is not worried about the stock.
"I don't think the investment community cares about what you hope to do -- they care about results," Beauchamp said.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.
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