Diligent Corporation
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| Private Company | |
| Industry | Software as a service |
| Founded | 1994[1] |
| Founders | Brian Henry and Kiri Borg[1] |
| Headquarters | New York City |
|
Area served
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Global |
|
Key people
|
Brian Stafford (CEO) |
| Products | Board member collaborative software |
| Services | Corporate software |
| Revenue | $83.1m USD revenue as at FY2014[2] |
| Website | diligent |
Diligent Corporation, known as Diligent, is a software as a service New Zealand company that enables board members of corporations, government organisations and not for profit groups to share and collaborate information for board meetings. The company has offices in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the head office in New York City, USA. Diligent is listed on the New Zealand NZX main board stock exchange under ticker code DIL.
Its products are based on a software as a service (SaaS) model and sold by subscription.
Contents
History
Diligent was founded by Brian Henry, Kiri Borg, Sharon Daniels and Dan Kiley in 1994 as Manhattan Creative Partners (MCP).[1] Henry was named CEO of the new Diligent entity, Alessandro (Alex) Sodi, President, and Kenneth Carroll, Chairman. SunAmerica became a client of Manhattan Creative Partners in 1998 when a director of SunAmerica, Peter Harbeck, and Brian Henry discovered a joint passion as airplane owners and recreational pilots. This led to a long and beneficial relationship.
In 1999, Alessandro Sodi was hired by Henry and Borg to assist in account management. Eventually, Henry turned over the day-to-day management of the SunAmerica account to Sodi. This enabled Henry to concentrate on maintaining and building Manhattan Creative Partners' clientele.
In 2000, when SunAmerica expressed their desire to do away with their massive and onerous hard-copy corporate board paper books, Alex Sodi and Marco Morsella, an early employee of Diligent, conceived and designed the original and first web-based "Boardbook." SunAmerica became the first company to license the new, web-based Boardbook. Diligent Partners, recognising the value of this innovative technology, invested some of the profits from other consultancy projects into the continuing development of the new software product. In 2003, the company formed Diligent Board Member Services "to reflect the firm's shift of focus to corporate governance service delivery."[1] By 2006, Diligent had expanded to Europe, Canada, and the UK.
Initial public offering and fallout
Diligent listed on the New Zealand Exchange (NZX) in 2007 with a $24m NZX IPO, valuing the company at $115m. The fundraising for the company was successful but prior to the company listing, damaging information about Brian Henry, original founder and CEO, and his brother Gerald Henry came to light. The allegations included reference to their bankruptcies in the late 1980s, and Gerald Henry's jail term for fraud in 1991.[3][4] Diligent put out a statement that Gerald Henry was not associated with the company.
Brian Henry was asked by the newly formed board of Diligent to resign the role of CEO on the same day of the IPO, due to the oversight of the disclosure of this information. Henry was replaced as CEO by Alessandro Sodi, who was then President. Henry remained on the Board for a further year before leaving the company completely in 2009.[5] Diligent's share price collapsed to $0.14 by March 2009 but later recovered to lead the pack of technology listings.[6]
Company growth and revenue restatement issues
With the release of the Apple iPad in 2010, Diligent developed an app for this new platform and commenced a period of explosive growth in client numbers. Diligent made its first operating profit in 2012. Between 2011 and 2012, company revenue grew by 165%.[7] By mid-2013, the Diligent stock price had reached over $8.00 NZD a share.
In August 2013, Diligent announced that it would need to restate revenue for the current and preceding three years due to discrepancies in company accounting practices. No fraud was involved, though the company was required to recognise revenue from the date of a contract being signed rather than the start of a month, and its installation fees recognised over a longer period of time. The company also acknowledged that its accounting systems were underdeveloped and required improvement.[8] It was fined by the NZX for a number of minor breaches of listing rules.[9]
Return to private ownership
On the 14th February 2016, Diligent announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Insight Partners for consideration of $4.90 per share, valuing the company at $624M USD, subject to approval from the shareholders.[10] A Shareholder meeting was held in Auckland, NZ on the 13th April, 2016 and having received 57% votes in favour of the Merger (as it was structured), Diligent de-listed from the NZX and returned into private hands.[11] The merger was opposed by the NZ Shareholders Association who considered the offer too low, stating that "current offer is low compared to where the company's prospects have been in the past"[11]
New products
In 2014, a new software product "Diligent Teams" was announced for release in the fourth quarter of 2015. This development would further promote the Diligent style of collaborative tools into management rather than just the board member space.[12]
Alessandro Sodi stood down in 2015 from the CEO role to focus on the launch of Diligent Teams as Chief Product Strategy Officer. Sodi's replacement Brian Stafford, an ex-Mckinsey partner and software-as-a-service specialist, brought his expertise to the table.
As of December 2015, Diligent claimed over 107,000 board members and senior leaders as users of its software and reported full year revenue at March 2015 of $83.1m USD.[2][13]
Awards
Diligent has won multiple Stevie Awards for customer service, including in years 2013, 2014, and 2015.[14]
References
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