Merchant Funds Management managing director Andrew Chapman has been made managing director of 1-Page in the hopes of halting the overthrow of the company’s management.
The HR software company is trying to get back on track after Merchant Funds attempted to disband its board, with the hope of being able to engineer a backdoor listing just two months ago. The move, led by Chapman, saw the company buy a 9.52% stake in 1-Page in the hopes of instigating a shareholder coup.
The move was unsuccessful, but did result in 1-Page’s chief executive and founder, Joanna Riley, stepping down from the role and Virginia Malley, Rusty Rueff and Joseph Bosch resigning from the board.
Former 1-Page chief financial officer Peter Kent has since taken the role of CEO.
Kent told The Australian Financial Review the board moves would see the Silicon Valley-based tech business remain the focus of the listed entity, and predicted it could win back investors, who had previously clamored to buy into the company.
“The changes to the board … and the appointment of Andrew were the result of a negotiated settlement and that has enabled us to move the board from seven people down to five, and allowed us to avoid a costly proxy fight on both sides.” Kent said
“As the chairman, John Fennelly, has said, the board continues to support and is enthusiastic about the company’s focus on providing talent-acquisition technology, removing the human recruiter from the equation.”
A source close to the matter claims that Chapman still wishes to disband 1-Page due to its $1M per month operating costs and decline in shareholder value.
But CEO Kent remains optimistic about returning 1-Page to its former glory.
“My priorities for the year really are to bring alignment back to the various interests in the company, be those shareholders, the board, management or employees and to return to the factors of building a great business and value for shareholders. You do that through accelerating sales momentum and disciplined expense optimisation,” he told AFR.
