MongoDB (MDB 0.81%) announced its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closed on Tuesday, and while the results were generally positive, another announcement cast a pall on the proceedings. After nearly 13 years with the company, co-founder Eliot Horowitz will step down as chief technology officer, as well as from MongoDB's board of directors, effective July 10, the day of the company's annual meeting.

Horowitz wrote the core code base for MongoDB beginning in 2007 and was responsible for building out the company's engineering and product teams. He isn't leaving MongoDB completely, as he will continue to serve as "technical advisor to MongoDB after leaving his full-time role."

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Not all bad news

The company's financial report was better than expected. MongoDB reported fourth-quarter revenue of $123.5 million, up 44% year over year. This was well ahead of management's forecast and analysts' consensus estimates, which topped out at $111 million and $110.57 million, respectively. 

Like many high-growth companies, MongoDB still isn't profitable, but the better-than-expected revenue helped the company report a loss that was narrower than expected, with a non-GAAP loss per share of $0.25, beatings expectations for a loss of $0.28, which was also the midpoint of management's guidance range. 

Like many businesses, MongoDB is feeling the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus. The company is anticipating an outbreak-related hit to revenue of between $1 million and $2 million for the first quarter and $15 million to $25 million for full fiscal 2021. It anticipates first-quarter revenue between $119 million and $121 million and full-year revenue between $510 million and $530 million. For context, MongoDB just reported full-year fiscal 2020 revenue of nearly $422 million.

MongoDB noted that conditions are evolving: "The situation regarding COVID-19 is uncertain and is changing rapidly and MongoDB will continue to evaluate its potential impact on its business," the company said.