WANdisco rebrands in ‘new start’ for software company after fraud saga
- Shareholders voted overwhelmingly in August to approve the name change
- Stephen Kelly, CEO of WANdisco, said the move was “not just a name change”.
- WANdisco shares were suspended for four months earlier this year
WANdisco has been renamed Cirata in the hope of drawing a line in a stormy year that was marred by a fraud investigation and the dismissal of 30 percent of its workforce.
The company expects to trade under the new name on the London Stock Exchange from Thursday, after shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the change at an annual general meeting in August.
Cirata, a combination of the words ‘cirrus cloud’ and ‘data’, was chosen by the company with the intention of differentiating itself from the accounting scandal that engulfed the company earlier this year.
New name: WANdisco has been renamed Cirata after a particularly stormy year
The software provider, which is headquartered in Sheffield and California, has previously admitted experiencing ‘months of trauma’ following the controversy.
Stephen Kelly, CEO of WANdisco, said the rebrand was “not just a name change” but “a new start for the company, and will have a positive impact on every aspect of our business.”
He added: ‘We are excited that Cirata has this opportunity to become a global industry leader.’
In early March, WANdisco shares were suspended from the junior AIM market when ‘significant, sophisticated and potentially fraudulent irregularities’ were discovered in the company’s 2022 financial accounts.
An independent investigation found that a single senior employee was responsible for overstating revenues and recording £88 million in false sales entries. Another investigation was opened by the Financial Conduct Authority.
WANdisco actually made £7.4 million in turnover last year instead of the mispublished £18 million, while bookings were a paltry £8.7 million instead of £97 million.
The story led to about 30 percent of employees being fired, chief financial officer Erik Miller and co-founder and CEO David Richards leaving, and the company struggling to survive.
A major lifeline came over the summer when the group raised £24.3 million from investors as part of a share placement.
This finally allowed it WANdisco shares to resume trading on July 26, when they returned at a 96 percent discount to their final share price before the suspension.
They were up 1.3 per cent at 63.8p on Wednesday morning, down from £13.10 when they were suspended seven months ago.
WANdisco makes software that allows companies to transfer large-scale data sets to the cloud for use in areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Some of its biggest customers include automakers General Motors and Mercedes-Benz Group, tech giants Google and Amazon, and web hosting platform GoDaddy.
Just before the accounting scandal broke, it was one of the fastest growing companies in Britain and was considering a New York stock exchange listing.