8×8, Inc. Appoints Samuel Wilson as Chief Financial Officer

Company Reiterates First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Guidance

8×8, Inc. , a leading integrated cloud communications platform, today announced the appointment of Samuel (Sam) Wilson to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Wilson succeeds Steven Gatoff, who will remain with the company until the fall to support a seamless transition.

Wilson joined 8×8 in September 2017, most recently serving as Chief Customer Officer and Managing Director of EMEA. As Chief Customer Officer, Wilson brought more than 20 years of sales, operations, and service experience to manage the complete customer lifecycle globally, including professional services, implementation, customer support, and enablement teams. Prior to that, Wilson served as Senior Vice President where he had responsibility for global eCommerce and small business, as well as U.S. mid-market sales. Previously, Wilson was at MobileIron where he was instrumental in taking the company public and part of the team that grew annual billings from $26 million to $200 million. Wilson is a finance expert, investor, former top-rated Wall Street analyst and Chartered Financial Analyst.

“Our current strategy is focused on profitability, execution and maximizing growth for innovation,” said Vik Verma, CEO of 8×8, Inc. “Sam is both an exceptional financial leader and an operational expert, and his intimate familiarity with all aspects of our strategy and business has helped him oversee 8×8’s eCommerce and small and medium business operations. Over the last six months, he has worked to transform the cost structure of our support and services organization through self-service and automation initiatives as our Chief Customer Officer. Importantly, in his new role as CFO, Sam will continue to be a key contributor to the acceleration of our SaaS strategy.”

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“I’ve had the pleasure of working directly with Sam both at MobileIron and 8×8. He is both a skilled finance expert and an exceptionally strong leader. 8×8 has a deep bench of talent, and the board could not be more excited to have Sam as CFO. The company is now even better positioned to capitalize on its tremendous market opportunities for growth and deliver shareholder value,” said Todd Ford, 8×8 Board Member and Audit Committee Chair.

Verma further commented, “On behalf of 8×8, I want to thank Steven for his service to this company as we laid the foundation for this transition. He moved us forward into a true SaaS operating model, and built a strong and seasoned finance team to support future growth on our new, enhanced platform, and we wish him well.”

“I am honored to take on this new role with 8×8,” said Wilson. “The cloud communications industry is at a unique inflection point and 8×8 is well-positioned to lead the business world into a more connected, resilient, and secure future. I look forward to building on recent successes including our strategic acquisitions, improved go-to-market strategy, and greater traction in the channel to help drive further operational excellence and growth for this incredible company.”

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Wilson will lead 8×8’s transformation on two fronts:

• Driving the company’s quarterly progress to achieve Non-GAAP pre-tax net income breakeven exiting this fiscal year.
• Systematically fueling growth from the migration of 8×8’s legacy installed base to the X Series platform as well as two key onramps for future growth — Jitsi-powered secure video meeting solutions and 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams (announced earlier today in a separate press release).

The company is reaffirming its guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 ending June 30, 2020 that was previously provided on May 12, 2020.

Q1 Fiscal 2021 Guidance:

• Total Revenue in the range of $120.0 million to $121.0 million, representing approximately 24% to 25% year-over-year growth.
• Service Revenue in the range of $112.5 million to $113.5 million, representing approximately 25% to 26% year-over-year growth.
• Non-GAAP Pre-tax Loss of approximately $12.0 million.

Please note that Service Revenue guidance is post-reclassification and excludes Professional Services. The historical reporting of Service Revenue, pre-reclassification and includes Professional Services, is anticipated to be in the range of approximately $116.0 million to $117.0 million, representing 26% to 27% year-over-year growth. The Company will not be disclosing the historical reporting of Service Revenue after the first quarter of fiscal 2021.

Gatoff’s departure is not based on any disagreement with the company’s accounting principles or practices or financial statement disclosures.

Open Communications Platform Announced

Earlier today, 8×8 revealed the company’s new 8×8 Open Communications Platform which provides the industry’s most complete portfolio of work-from-anywhere enterprise communications. 8×8 uniquely brings together the essential elements required in an enterprise communications platform, combining voice, team chat, meetings, and contact centers solutions fueled by shared intelligent communications services like AI-driven expert routing and predictive analytics. As part of the platform launch, 8×8 announced the availability of Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) programmable applications and APIs, including SMS and 8×8 Video.