The return of Lightspeed Commerce founder Dax Dasilva to the helm of the company won’t just be temporary. The cloud commerce specialist announced Thursday that it was removing the “interim” designation from Mr. Dasilva’s title, who therefore becomes CEO again on a permanent basis.
Mr. Dasilva returned to the helm of the company on an interim basis in February, replacing Jean Paul Chauvet, who left the company. He previously served as CEO of the company he founded in 2005 until February 2022.
Upon his return, Mr. Dasilva expressed his desire to take over the reins of the company on a permanent basis. He stressed that even if the mention “interim” was attached to his title, he wanted to hold his position for the long term.
Lightspeed made its return permanent when it announced its fourth-quarter results Thursday morning.
“We are in a new phase,” Mr. Dasilva said during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s most recent financial results.
“This is Lightspeed’s profitable growth phase, so I’m excited to lead it,” he said.
This new phase, according to Mr. Dasilva, has three objectives: accelerating software revenue growth, advancing the adoption of financial services products and controlling costs.
To improve software revenue growth, Dasilva said the company would invest in product innovation, redeploy account managers to upsell products to customers, and focus on customers who tend to adopt more software.
On the financial services side, the company wants to attract more customers by using not only its payment technology, but also its capital and instant deposit offerings.
Mr. Dasilva’s ultimate goal is to control costs and achieve more savings.
It has already achieved this goal by laying off 280 employees last month, which the company estimates will reduce its operational expenses by 10% in fiscal 2025. The company has also reduced expenses by moving its sales peak towards a virtual format and reducing the size of its offices.
To continue to achieve savings, Lightspeed CFO Asha Bakshani said the company would undertake a “thorough review” of its global facilities to “identify areas where we can streamline our footprint” and review contracts with its partners and suppliers.
Positive results
On Thursday, the Montreal company reported a loss of US$32.5 million, or 21 US cents per share, for its quarter that ended March 31, compared to a net loss of US$74.5 million, or 49 US cents per share, for the same period a year earlier.
Its revenues amounted to US$230.2 million, comprising US$139.0 million for revenues from transaction processing, US$81.3 million for subscriptions and US$9.87 million for computer hardware.
Overall, this is a 25% increase in revenue from $184.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
On an adjusted basis, Lightspeed said it earned US$8.5 million, or 6 US cents per share, in its most recent quarter, compared to an adjusted loss of US$400,000, or 0 US cents per share, in the last quarter. same quarter of last year.
“Lightspeed’s first quarter under Dax Dasilva confirms the company’s commitment to balancing growth and profitability,” observed analyst Daniel Chan of TD Securities in a note to clients.
For the full year 2024, Lightspeed reported a loss of US$164.0 million, or US$1.07 per share, compared to a loss of US$1.07 billion, or US$7.11 per share, during the 2023 financial year.
Its revenues reached US$909.3 million, which is slightly higher than its most recent forecasts, while its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came to US$1.3 million.
For fiscal 2025, Lightspeed expects revenue growth of at least 20%, as well as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of at least US$40 million.
With information from Tara Deschamps