ATLANTA, Sept. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Internap
Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP), a provider of high-performance internet
infrastructure services, today announced that Peter Aquino, a 30-year technology, media and
telecommunications (TMT) industry veteran, has been appointed
president and chief executive officer and a member of the company's
board of directors, effective on September
19, 2016. Mr. Aquino succeeds Michael Ruffolo, a board member who stepped in
as CEO during 2015 to lead the company's customer-focused
transformation. In addition, Peter J.
Rogers, Jr. has been appointed to the board of directors.
Following these changes, Internap's board now comprises seven
directors, six of whom will be non-employee, independent
directors.
Mr. Aquino joins Internap with a strong track record overseeing
major expansion efforts, turnarounds and strategic partnerships and
transactions at other companies in the TMT industry. Previously, he
served as chairman and chief executive officer, and later as
executive chairman, of Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc. (PTGi)
(NYSE: PTGI). Under Mr. Aquino's leadership, PTGi expanded into an
integrated telecommunications company serving consumer and business
customers with voice, data, high capacity fiber and data center
services in several markets around the world. PTGi's collection of
global assets reached approximately $1
billion in revenue before the company achieved a successful
liquidity event following several divestitures.
Prior to PTGi, Mr. Aquino was president and chief executive
officer of RCN Corporation from 2004 until it was successfully
taken private in 2010 for $1.2
billion. During his tenure at RCN, Mr. Aquino transformed
RCN into an all-digital HDTV cable MSO in five major U.S. markets,
including New York City,
Boston, Chicago, Washington,
D.C. and eastern Pennsylvania. While at RCN, Mr. Aquino also
created RCN Metro Fiber Inc. (now part of Lightower Fiber
Networks), an advanced fiber infrastructure company.
"We are delighted to welcome Pete to Internap. We believe his
experience transforming and driving growth at other companies in
the TMT industry is ideal for Internap. Pete's compensation will be
closely tied to Internap's performance as we look to capitalize on
the opportunities in our markets," said Dan
Stanzione, chairman of the Internap board of directors. "On
behalf of the board, we want to thank Mike for his tireless
dedication and countless contributions to Internap both as a
director and as our CEO. Mike stepped in during a challenging
period and stabilized the business, re-engaged employees across
geographies and functions and focused the global company on its
customers. Pete is grateful for the contributions that Mike has
made, values his insight into both the industry and the company,
and has asked Mike to help drive a smooth and effective transition.
With this foundation in place, we are confident that Pete's
leadership will help accelerate our growth and enhance shareholder
value."
"I am excited to lead Internap at such an important time," said
Mr. Aquino. "Internap is uniquely positioned to provide customers
with fast, powerful and scalable internet infrastructure that
offers all of the possibilities of cloud-hosted computing anchored
by a global network of data centers. I believe that Internap is
well-positioned to compete, and I look forward to working with the
team to leverage Internap's reputation for putting customers first.
I am honored to have the opportunity to continue the company's
transformation efforts, and I am confident in our ability to drive
enhanced efficiency, profitability and growth and generate value
for both customers and shareholders."
Internap also announced today that Peter
J. Rogers, Jr., a former 27-year veteran of MICROS Systems,
Inc., has joined the Internap board as a new independent director.
Mr. Rogers is currently a principal of the Stroudwater Group, a
Washington, D.C.-based strategic
consulting firm, where he specializes in advising technology
companies on a wide range of business functions. Mr. Rogers'
appointment follows a search for new independent directors begun by
Internap's board of directors.
"We are pleased to welcome Peter
Rogers to the board as our newest independent director,"
said Dr. Stanzione. "Peter brings decades of technology industry
experience in a number of key areas critical to Internap's
business, including business development, marketing, product
management, finance and investor relations. We look forward to
benefiting from Peter's fresh perspective in the boardroom."
In connection with today's appointments, Internap affirmed that
while the company remains open to value-maximizing opportunities
that are in the best interests of all shareholders, the company is
not engaged at this time in discussions with any party and is not
actively pursuing transaction alternatives to organic
growth.
As a material inducement to entering into employment with the
company, Mr. Aquino will be awarded 1,585,000 restricted shares of
the company's common stock on his first date of employment under
the terms of an award agreement. This award was unanimously
approved by the Compensation Committee of the company's board of
directors as an inducement award pursuant to NASDAQ Listing Rule
5635(c)(4). Of the total grant, 300,000 shares of restricted stock
are subject to time-based vesting (in three year annual
increments), 700,000 shares of restricted stock are subject to
performance-based vesting based on the company achieving specified
stock price targets and the remaining 585,000 shares of restricted
stock are subject to vesting based on both the company achieving
specified stock price targets and time-based vesting following the
company's achievement of those stock price targets. Vesting of the
shares of restricted stock is conditioned upon Mr. Aquino's
continued employment with the company, and is subject to
acceleration upon certain events (including a change of control of
the company as defined in the award agreement).
About Peter D.
Aquino
Mr. Aquino, 55, began his career at Bell
Atlantic (now Verizon) and has over 30 years of TMT experience. Mr.
Aquino was the executive chairman of Primus Telecommunications
Group, Inc. (NYSE: PTGI) until April
2013, transitioning to that role after serving as chairman
and chief executive officer from October
2010 to January 2013. Prior to
PTGi, Mr. Aquino was the president and chief executive officer of
RCN Corporation from December 2004
until August 2010. Mr. Aquino has
held leadership positions in both public and private companies,
specializing in expansion efforts, turnarounds, M&A, and
emerging markets. He is the founder of Broad Valley Capital, LLC,
providing advisory services and capital to improve business
operations, productivity and asset value. In his role as a
consultant, Mr. Aquino has led several operating and financial
teams through reorganizations and M&A opportunities at
companies such as Leap Wireless, XO Communications, Allegiance
Telecom, Northeast Optical Networks (NEON), Lumos Networks and
others. Mr. Aquino is also the founder of Broad Valley Micro Fiber
Networks Inc., a Mid-Atlantic fiber and wireless infrastructure
services provider founded in 2014.
Mr. Aquino is a graduate of Montclair State College in
New Jersey, and holds an MBA from
George Washington University.
About Peter J. Rogers,
Jr.
Mr. Rogers, 61, is a principal of the Stroudwater
Group, providing strategic advisory services and board of directors
services to growth stage technology companies. Over a 27-year
career at MICROS Systems, Inc., he served in a variety of roles as
a key member of an executive team that built the technology company
from $18 million in revenue to
$1.4 billion, and grew its market cap
from $3 million to $5.3 billion.
Mr. Rogers has extensive C-level executive experience in
strategy, investor relations, operations, marketing and management.
He has more than 20 years of global experience with the financial
community as an investor relations and business development
executive. He has also demonstrated broad experience in managing
people across multiple disciplines, building teams, strategic
planning, developing and managing external relationships and
executing business plans. He currently serves on the boards of
several technology companies, including as chairman of B4Checkin,
Ltd. and as a director of Gusto POS Systems, Inc. and StayNTouch,
Inc.
Mr. Rogers received an MBA from New York
University Stern School of Business and a BA from the
University of Pennsylvania.
About Internap
Internap is the high-performance
internet infrastructure provider that powers the applications
shaping the way we live, work and play. Our hybrid infrastructure
delivers performance without compromise – blending virtual and
bare-metal cloud, hosting and colocation services across a global
network of data centers, optimized from the application to the end
user and backed by rock-solid customer support and a 100% uptime
guarantee. Since 1996, the most innovative companies have relied on
Internap to make their applications faster and more scalable. For
more information, visit www.internap.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release
contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements include statements related to our expectations for the
leadership transition and its impact on our ability to accelerate
growth, enhance shareholder value and continue the company's
transformation efforts, our competitive position and our ability to
drive enhanced efficiency, profitability and growth. Our ability to
achieve these forward-looking statements is based on certain
assumptions, including our ability, under new leadership, to
execute on our business strategy, our ability to successfully and
efficiently leverage multiple routes to market, expanded brand
awareness for high-performance internet infrastructure services and
bookings and customer churn levels. These assumptions may prove to
be inaccurate in the future. Because such forward-looking
statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve
risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could
cause Internap's actual results to differ materially from those in
the forward-looking statements. These factors include our ability
to execute on our business strategy and drive growth; our ability
to maintain current customers and obtain new ones, whether in a
cost-effective manner or at all; the robustness of the IT
infrastructure services market; our ability to achieve or sustain
profitability; our ability to expand margins and drive higher
returns on investment; our ability to sell into new and existing
data center space; the actual performance of our IT infrastructure
services; our ability to correctly forecast capital needs, demand
planning and space utilization; our ability to respond successfully
to technological change and the resulting competition; the
availability of services from internet network service providers or
network service providers providing network access loops and local
loops on favorable terms, or at all; failure of third party
suppliers to deliver their products and services on favorable
terms, or at all; failures in our network operations centers, data
centers, network access points or computer systems; our ability to
provide or improve internet infrastructure services to our
customers; and our ability to protect our intellectual property, as
well as other factors discussed in our filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Given these risks and uncertainties,
investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements as a prediction of actual results. We undertake no
obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking
statement for any reason.
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Press
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Investor
Contact:
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Arico
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404-302-9982
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ir@internap.com
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SOURCE Internap Corporation