A conversation with Jason Liu – Interim CEO of Allegro
I visited this morning with Jason Liu, the newly appointed interim CEO of Allegro who was installed following the recapitalization of the company by Vector Capital and Cerium Technology, and the subsequent departure of Allegro’s incumbent CEO, Ray Hood. Mr. Liu is a highly experienced technology leader with more than 20 years of executive experience, including CEO positions with a number of Vector-backed companies in the US and Europe. While he indicated his new role could potentially become permanent, he feels that at this time his family obligations will not allow him to relocate from his home in Chicago to Dallas on a long-term basis. As such, he anticipates his tenure will be 6 months to a year as he works to continue the company’s momentum and assists in the search for a permanent CEO.
In our conversation, Mr. Liu did provide some additional insights into the Vector/Cerium recapitalization. Vector, considered to be one of the top technology-centric private equity firms in the US, has been looking at buying into the company for some time now, but it’s only been within the last few months that the necessary pieces had fallen into place to make the deal work.
Under the new ownership, Vector owns 60% of company with Eldon Klaasson’s Cerium owning the remaining 40%. Board participation is split proportionally with three of the five board seats controlled by Vector. Cerium will control the other two seats and Mr. Klaassen will serve as board chairman. This simplified equity structure replaces what was a more complex ownership structure (with multiple levels of equity) under which control of board seats, and ultimately decision making, had become contentious.
Mr. Liu noted that Vector’s investment window is usually five to seven years, implying that this new ownership structure should provide long-term stability at the top and help ensure the company can continue the growth trajectory that it has established over the couple of years. He indicated future growth for Allegro would come from continuing to strengthen their customer-focused support and services model that has helped to drive organic growth to more than 30% per year, while simultaneously looking at acquisition opportunities in adjacent markets that would be in alignment with both the company’s strategic road-map and technical architecture.
Though it’s still early days in the transition process, ComTech does believe the recapitalization of Allegro will stabilize the company at the top and help eliminate many of the distractions and conflicts that have often overshadowed the successes that the company has had in the last 18 months.
Keep in touch and sign up to our Newsletter
