Citrix looking to sell declining ByteMobile

At its investor’s conference call, Citrix confirmed it has been in discussions with a variety of third parties regarding the sale of its mobile network traffic management arm, ByteMobile.

In a statement released by the vendor prior to the investor’s call, Citrix confirmed discussions relating to a potential sale are ongoing.

“The company also announced that earlier this year it engaged a financial advisor to provide strategic advice related to the potential sale of its ByteMobile business,” it said. “Citrix is currently in active discussions with third parties regarding a potential sale.”

Citrix, on the whole, witnessed revenue growth of 1.9% year-on-year for Q2 2015, up from $782 million in 2014 to $797m in 2015. However, ByteMobile’s disappointing performance led the way for an overall revenue decrease for its networking division, as Citrix COO/CFO David James Henshall elaborated.

“In our delivery networking, total revenue decreased 3.5% in the quarter to $173 million,” he said. “The decline is driven by two factors. First, license contribution from our ByteMobile business declined by about 50% from last year. As we indicated in our release, we’ve been in the process of exploring alternatives for this business over the past several months, and as you’d imagine, this process has been significantly disruptive to the team and ultimately the results.”

The sharp decline in revenues, as pointed out by Henshall, is likely related to the ongoing reshuffle for ByteMobile and Citrix on the whole. Henshall stressed the company has been focussing on simplification and “portfolio optimisation” over the past two or three quarters, and it would appear ByteMobile has spent much of that period under the spotlight.

“Everything we’ve been doing over the course of the last two or three quarters is focussed on simplification, it’s focussed on the core markets, portfolio optimisation and efficiencies,” he said. “ByteMobile is a little bit different, because as you know we have taken the team out of the field where they used to reside, put them into a holistic unit and then go on through an examination process that has been very disruptive.”

It was only 2012 when Citrix signed a definitive agreement to acquire ByteMobile, and the sale of the business will probably indicate the end of Citrix’s involvement in the mobile industry, opting to focus more exclusively on its cloud and SaaS business line.

Alongside announcing its quarterly performance, Citrix also confirmed its CEO and president Mark Templeton will be retiring. Having led the firm since 1998, Templeton will continue to serve in his current role until such a time that a successor has been appointed.

“I will continue to focus on leading Citrix and driving value-creating change until we are ready to make a smooth transition,” he said. “I have total confidence that the board will identify a great candidate to serve Citrix into the future.”