Internet infrastructure services provider VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN) recently appointed John Calys to the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective immediately.

Earlier, Executive Vice President and CFO Brian Robins resigned from his positions effective September 7, 2011 to pursue other opportunities.

Calys has been appointed on an interim basis and will report directly to Jim Bidzos, Executive Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Calys will have full responsibility for the company’s financial operations.

Calys has been serving as the company’s Vice President and Controller since December 2010, and will continue to perform these roles. Prior to joining Verisign, Calys had conjoint responsibilities as the Vice President and Controller of XO Holdings, Inc. He also served as Vice President and Assistant Treasurer of Sprint Nextel Corporation (S), and Vice President and Assistant Controller of Nextel Communications, Inc.

VeriSign has been experiencing attrition at the management level. Previously, Mark McLaughlin resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective August 1, 2011 and Jim Bidzos, Verisign’s founder and former CEO took over.

It remains to be seen how the business shapes up with the departure of the management team, which was primarily responsible for streamlining the company.

VeriSign has been restructuring its business since 2007. VeriSign decided to focus its attention on its core competencies to provide highly scaleable, reliable and secure Internet infrastructure services to customers around the world. Hence, the company divested a number of non-core businesses in its portfolio, such as communications, billing and commerce, content delivery, messaging and enterprise security services.

At the time of the resignation of its CFO earlier this month, VeriSign reaffirmed its guidance for 2011. VeriSign expects revenues between $765 million and $775 million in 2011, up 12% to 14% year over year and up from the earlier guidance of a growth of 11% – 14%. Excluding one-time items and stock based compensation expenses; gross margin is projected at around 79%.

We maintain a Neutral recommendation on VeriSign. Our Neutral recommendation is supported by a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term rating of Hold.

 
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