Everbridge Advances Strategic Plans Despite Shareholder Controversy

In some respects, critical event management software company Everbridge hasn’t had the easiest year.

In March, the company was challenged by one of its shareholders, Ancora Holdings Group. Its officers insisted Everbridge evaluate sale opportunities and engage with a broad set of potential buyers. Ancora officials said Everbridge is dramatically undervalued at its current share price, which closed on Monday at $40.11. They also accuse the company of failed leadership — most notably, the fact that former CEO David Meredith left after just a few years on the job. Finally, Ancora alleges that Everbridge’s chairman of the board engaged in a conflict of interest that breached the board’s fiduciary duty to stockholders.

Channel Futures reported on Ancora’s accusations and Everbridge’s response here and here. Everbridge shareholders re-elected the company’s board despite a proxy battle waged by Ancora. However, the Boston Business Journal found that nearly one-half (49%) of stockholders who voted withheld support for chairman Jamie Ellertson.

Everbridge’s Vernon Irvin

“Ancora is a shareholder, but a small shareholder,” said Vernon Irvin, co-CEO of Everbridge. “But the reality is that our obligation is to all our shareholders. Creating value for the company will remain our chief focus. We’re transforming the business, integrating the acquisitions and not buying a lot of new companies.”

Overseas Contracts

Ancora representatives might depict Everbridge as a floundering company, but it recently reported 22% growth in first-quarter earnings.

Additionally, the company has recently secured several million-dollar contracts to power public warning systems in Germany and India. This couldn’t be timelier for Germany, for example. Last year record rainfall triggered deadly flash floods – more than 200 people died – in Germany and neighboring countries. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes. Through its contract with Germany’s federal government, Everbridge’s warning technology now can notify each citizen in that country during an emergency.

Irvin said that the initiatives behind these recent contracts reflect a streamlining of Everbridge’s programming.

“They’re early examples of things that we’re doing,” Irvin said. “But our customers – and more importantly, our partners and our sellers – are applauding the fact that we’ve simplified our platform.”

Everbridge has moved from offering several dozen individual point products to focus on four strategic bundles. These target a specific buyer persona with a unique and differentiated technology solution.

“Bundles make it simple for customers to actually be able to graduate up to different levels of sophistication on that bundle. Before that, they would have had to pick from 52 products,” Irvin said.

During the first quarter, Everbridge executives said they saw evidence that their strategic realignment was resonating with customers. Partners have also applauded the change.

Everbridge’s Patrick Brickley

“We also saw positive traction with our partners as evidenced by an increase in the mix of our deals which came through partnerships. Our partners have responded well to our simplification strategy,” said Patrick Brickley, Everbridge co-CEO, during the earnings call.

AWS Partnership

Partners may also benefit from Everbridge’s recent announcement that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate program. It’s a co-sell program for AWS partners who provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS. It’s dedicated to the global business development of AWS partners. Joining the company’s ISV Accelerate program enables Everbridge to further meet customer needs through collaboration with the AWS sales organization. Close collaboration with AWS complements Everbridge’s ability to …