Stephen Branstetter, the chief operating officer at Smartsheet, recently announced his resignation, following his decision to leave the company on September 13. Despite stepping down from his role, Branstetter will continue to serve as an advisor until November 18. His departure coincides with reports of potential acquisition talks by private equity firms, particularly Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone, who are looking to acquire Smartsheet for approximately $8 billion. Branstetter, who was appointed as COO in 2021, previously held various positions within the company, including senior vice president of operations and vice president of services and customer success.
Along with his decision to resign, Branstetter also sold 1,847 shares of Smartsheet stock valued at around $97,000. Despite this, he still maintains ownership of more than 64,000 shares. In response to his departure, Smartsheet announced that it will be eliminating the COO position and transitioning to a dual President model, with separate positions for President, Go-to-Market, and President, Product & Innovation. These organizational changes come after the company’s reported discussions with private equity firms regarding a potential acquisition, which have been ongoing since June.
Since reports of potential acquisition talks emerged, Smartsheet’s shares have gone up by more than 30%, with a current market capitalization of approximately $7 billion. The company recently reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings, showing a 17% increase in revenue to $276.4 million. Despite incurring an operating loss of $8.5 million, this is an improvement compared to the $36.1 million loss in the same period the previous year. During the company’s earnings conference call, Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader chose not to comment on the acquisition talks when questioned by analysts.
Founded in 2005 and having gone public in 2018, Smartsheet offers cloud-based enterprise work management technologies for project management, collaboration, data storage, task automation, and assignment. The company boasts an impressive client portfolio, serving 85% of the Fortune 500 companies. Smartsheet faces competition from various players in the market, including Asana, Monday.com, and Microsoft. With a workforce of more than 3,300 employees, the company continues to evolve and innovate its products and services to stay competitive in the enterprise software industry.
