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Jive Software employs more than 250 at its downtown Portland office.
(Mike Rogoway/The Oregonian)
Shares in Jive Software are off dramatically Wednesday morning, falling more than 10 percent in early trading after the company told investors it is struggling to sign up customers and warned its growth will continue to slow.
Oregon's biggest tech success story in a generation is no longer a success. Investors appear to be giving up on the company.
Shares are trading a little above $4, one-third of the company's 2011 IPO price and well off their peak around $30 at the height of the social media investment craze.
Jive's headquarters are in Silicon Valley, but its largest operations are in downtown Portland, where the company was based until 2010. The company makes business collaboration software, using social networking tools to help workers connect with one another and collaborate.
Second-quarter results, out Tuesday, were in line or above Jive's forecast. But the company's outlook for the rest of the year suggested growth will slow to a crawl, and on a conference call with investment analysts the company said key products aren't meeting expectations, including its Jive-n business collaboration software and its Jive-x marketing software.
Jive shares opened down more than 20 percent Wednesday but soon settled out around a 13 percent decline.
Chief executive Elisa Steele said efforts to retool Jive's marketing approach, to find more big clients, aren't yet producing results.
"We are committed to improve execution going forward," Steele told investment analysts on Jive's quarterly conference call. "But the slower start will have an impact on our billings growth for the rest of the year."
Like many young companies, Jive loses money every quarter and is slowly draining cash - it had $127 million in cash at the end of July, down $7 million from three months earlier. Investors once anticipated rapid sales growth would eventually produce big profits, but that now appears less likely.
On Tuesday, Jive said it now expects 2015 sales between $192 million and $196 million. That's up just 7 to 10 percent from a year earlier. And the company said annual billings may be flat, or up just 5 percent.
-- Mike Rogoway
mrogoway@oregonian.com
503-294-7699
@rogoway