UPDATED 15:58 EDT / MAY 17 2013

Stakeholder Campaigns for NetApp Board Reshuffle

NetApp’s stock price soared 6.2 percent, the biggest gain since November 2012, after an anonymous tipster told Bloomberg that one of its stakeholders is pushing for changes to the company’s board of directors and agenda.

As of Wednesday, Elliot Management, the activist hedge fund founded by billionaire Paul Singer, owned 4.1 million shares in NetApp. That’s about one percent the company’s total shares outstanding. According to Bloomberg’s source, Elliot has proposed the changes – and put together a list of prospective new directors for NetApp to review – because it believes the company needs to make some drastic changes in order to raise its stock price.

NetApp’s market capitalization went from $47 billion during the height of the dot.com bubble to just over $13.1 today. The company’s stock traded flat for the past 12 months.

What can NetApp do to recover its former glory? It can start by making use of its $7 billion cash stockpile. “Even after retiring the $1.2 billion convertible note due in June, they still have plenty of liquidity,” said Brian Alexander, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc who rates the stock outperformed with a price target of $40 a share. “A takeover is less likely because their technology is not well positioned for where the future in storage will occur, such as big data and cloud computing.”

Despite the fact that NetApp is not short on cash, the company appears to be preparing for some major cutbacks. According to a Piper Jaffary note picked up by The Register, the storage vendor is set to announce a 10 percent work force reduction. That means 1,300 jobs will be eliminated throughout the company, most likely in low-performing businesses such as Engenio.


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