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Micro Focus CEO Resigns, Stock Drops 50 Percent

Exiting Micro Focus CEO Chris Hsu
Exiting Micro Focus CEO Chris Hsu
New CEO Stephen Murdoch

Micro Focus International's stock (MFGP) has dropped more than 50 percent and CEO Chris Hsu has resigned amid a big earnings and revenue warning from the software company.

Among the problems: Micro Focus's $8.8 billion buyout of certain HP Enterprise (HPE) software assets has become a drag on the company. Overall revenue for the current fiscal year will fall six to nine percent, the company forecast today -- a much larger drop than the two to four percent revenue decline that Micro Focus had previously predicted.

Amid those financial challenges, Micro Focus CEO Chris Hsu has "notified the Board of Directors that due to a desire to spend more time with his family he will step down, effective immediately, as CEO and Director of the company."

In response, the Board promoted COO Stephen Murdoch into the CEO slot. Murdoch was CEO of the company before the HPE software asset acquisition. He previously held key posts at IBM and Dell Technologies.

The HPE software asset deal has worried Micro Focus investors for several months. Back in January 2018, the company's shares fell 17 percent after Micro Focus announced less-than-stellar six-month interim results.

We're checking to see if or how Micro Focus's challenges will impact HPE, which has various financial and business connections to the company.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.