PANW CEO Nikesh Arora Is Not Long for the CEO Chair
We wrote about PANW agreeing to pay 25x Revenue for CYBR earlier this week. The deal feels like an attempt by Arora to create a splash to save his job. PANW shares have been flattish over the past year and have under-performed the QQQ during Arora’s 7-plus years as CEO.
Further, I’ve never been a fan of Technology companies that acquire roll-ups, which is what CYBR is.
We will see how the deal plays out in the 24 months post deal close, not that I expect PANW to share deal-related ROIC figures with us. I’m not sure that PANW tracks deal-related ROIC - which is incredibly important - but few companies exercise this discipline into their post-deal integration process.
Arora is firmly in CEORater’s list of “At Risk” CEOs, given his 42 AlphaScore and having under-performed the market. The CYBR deal is likely the straw that will break Arora’s back and push him out of PANW’s CEO chair.