What happened
Cloud-computing company DigitalOcean (DOCN 3.30%) didn't have any news scheduled, so investors likely didn't expect anything eventful today. However, the company announced yesterday afternoon that CEO Yancey Spruill will be stepping down as soon as they can find a replacement. The market was clearly taken aback by this announcement, which is why DigitalOcean stock was down 11% at 10:15 a.m. ET.
So what
Leadership changes are hard enough when they're planned long in advance. But DigitalOcean's CEO search feels abrupt. The company reported financial results for the second quarter of 2023 earlier this month without any indication that a change was in the works. And I'm personally unaware of any previous plans for Spruill to move on from the company.
DigitalOcean's board of directors said it's looking for a CEO with "Deep cloud technology and operational expertise," which might suggest where it believes Spruill's leadership fell short.
Now what
As a shareholder, I'm concerned with DigitalOcean's plan to replace Spruill. He joined the company in 2019 to help it through the initial public offering (IPO) process and vowed to prioritize free-cash-flow generation and improve shareholder value.
In those important metrics, Spruill delivered. The chart below shows the rapid improvement of free cash flow and an impressive reduction in the company's outstanding share count over the last couple of years.
DOCN Free Cash Flow data by YCharts
However, in fairness, there is some weakness in the business fundamentals, and perhaps this is related to Spruill's leadership -- insiders would know better. In Q2, DigitalOcean's net dollar retention rate (a key indicator of existing customer spend) hit its lowest growth since the company went public and has decelerated for three straight quarters.
I was personally inclined to believe the slowdown was industry-related, not a headwind unique to DigitalOcean. But perhaps the board is seeing something that needs to be fixed.
I would at least wait until Spruill's successor has been on the job for a couple of quarters before judging whether this was the right move for the company.
