Asana CEO Announces Retirement, Stock Plummets 25% (cnbc.com) 18
Dustin Moskovitz, CEO and co-founder of Asana, is stepping down and will transition to the role of Chair once a new CEO is appointed. "As I reflect on my journey since co-founding Asana nearly 17 years ago, I'm filled with immense gratitude," Moskovitz said in a statement. "Creating and leading Asana has been more than just building a company -- it's been a profound privilege to work alongside some of the most talented minds in the industry." Asana's stock price was down more than 25% following the news. CNBC reports: Asana said fourth-quarter sales rose 10% year over year to $188.3 million, which was in line with analysts' estimates. The company said its adjusted earnings per share was breakeven, ahead of analysts' estimates of a loss of one cent per share. Asana said it expects fiscal first-quarter revenue of $184.5 million to $186.5 million, trailing analysts' expectations of $191 million.
Moskovitz owns about 53% of the company's outstanding shares, between his Class A and Class B holdings. He has substantially increased his ownership since the company's public market debut in 2020. [...] Moskovitz said in his Monday retirement statement that he plans to focus more on his philanthropic endeavors, such as Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy, which cites "potential risks from advanced AI" among its various focus areas. In 2010, Moskovitz signed the Giving Pledge, a promise by some of the wealthiest people in the world to donate most of their fortunes to charity.
Moskovitz owns about 53% of the company's outstanding shares, between his Class A and Class B holdings. He has substantially increased his ownership since the company's public market debut in 2020. [...] Moskovitz said in his Monday retirement statement that he plans to focus more on his philanthropic endeavors, such as Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy, which cites "potential risks from advanced AI" among its various focus areas. In 2010, Moskovitz signed the Giving Pledge, a promise by some of the wealthiest people in the world to donate most of their fortunes to charity.
What the hell is Asana? (Score:5, Informative)
I've never heard of them before. Had to Google...
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Not only that, this Moskovitz guy must be a legendary god with the shareholders if his stepping down (not even leaving the company completely, mind you), is enough to cause the stock to slide 25%.
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Building a vehicle for a smart person to make a lot of money is one thing. Building an entity that can meet customer needs in a reliably boring way while defending turf and (hopefully) growing is very different. The CEO's most important job is finding the right people for critical roles. Sounds like he was (at least viewed as) more of a one-man-band.
There's a lesson there somewhere for The Indispensable Man. At least about not holding
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There's a lot of companies that are dependent on the vision of one person. Asana is the victim of a CEO pushing AI. They announced that back in December causing their stock price to skyrocket, this is more of a correction than anything else.
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Keep in mind he also owns a majority stake of the company. Some investors may be worried that he'll start unwinding his shares, which could depress the price of the shares they hold.
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Me either.
And I have not bothered to Google.
Moskvitch (Score:1)
Slashdot editors, please identify companies thanks (Score:5, Informative)
"Asana, a leading enterprise work management platform, is where work connects to goals. Over 169,000 customers like Amazon, Accenture, Morningstar, Anthropic, and Suzuki rely on Asana to manage and automate everything from goal setting and tracking to capacity planning to product launches. To learn more, visit www.asana.com."
Re: Slashdot editors, please identify companies th (Score:3)
enterprise work management platform
I'm still none the wiser. Do the two Bobs work for them?
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Asana is a Jira competitor (Score:2)
It's one of the more popular Cloud-based alternatives to Jira, if that means anything to you.
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I used it briefly, and FWIW, it's generally nicer than Jira in just about every way you can imagine.
However, it'll never take over Jira in most shops because it doesn't have all the integrations Jira has. You can do all the basic sprint/scrum stuff in Asana, but you can't link in your testing reports and your badly drawn product roadmap and you even more badly drawn product requirements and all the other crap Jira piles on top. It's a shame, because I'll bet even once Asana has all that crap added, it'll st
Re: Asana is a Jira competitor (Score:2)
Coincidence? (Score:2)
We know the chair (Score:2)
Who's going to be the table?
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Who's going to be the table?
I KNOW THIS ONE! James Hetfield.
ASAN user here... (Score:1)
Lots of companies use Asana, which is a rather solid platform overall.
What's impressed me more is the amount of money Dustin kept plowing into it over the years to maintain its share price. I never bought any but always thought that was a sign of better fortunes ahead... or perhaps just founder delusions.
The stock had a great pop in early Dec but after the decline on this news now trades around where Dustin has been picking up shares the last few years.