Cable network technology vendor Casa Systems has culminated a talent search started in March when company founder Jerry Guo announced his retirement from the role of president and CEO, hiring longtime Cisco Systems executive Michael Glickman as his replacement. 

Glickman spent nearly 22 years at Cisco Systems, the latter part of that tenure in senior VP-level sales and marketing positions within the chip giant’s global service provider segment. 

He left Cisco at the end of 2020 to join Culver City, California-based network tech company PacketFabric as president. That's where he arrives at Casa Systems immediately from.

Glickman joins Casa at a challenging time, with the stock cratering in March — not only did Guo, who founded Casa Systems 20 years earlier, retire, but the company also announced the sad news that a “major North American customer,” presumed to be Charter Communications, would not be using Casa products as part of its ongoing network upgrade. 

“The Board believes Michael’s global sales leadership skills and industry experience strongly align with Casa Systems’ strategic priorities as we embark on the next phase of accelerated growth,” said the man who headed the executive search that led to Glickman, Bruce Evans, chairman of the Casa Systems board.

“With a proven track record of leading billion-dollar revenue businesses and spearheading global sales organizations focused on service providers, including telcos and cable MSOs, Michael brings a unique set of qualifications that position him for success in his role,” Evans added. 

Said Glickman, also in a prepped statement: “Casa Systems has a very strong heritage and cutting-edge technologies. I look forward to building upon what Jerry Guo, visionary founder and former CEO and this talented team have created over the past twenty years, and I am committed to our collective vision of reestablishing Casa Systems as an industry disruptor for the benefit of our global customers.”

Jerry Guo, who founded cable and wireless technology company Casa Systems 20 years ago, announced during his company's fourth-quarter earnings call earlier this week that he's retiring, effective soon ... very soon. Friday.

The University of Wisconsin-trained electrical engineering doctorate, who had stops at Bell Labs and Motorola, will sustain a sizable presence at the Andover, Massachusetts-based tech vendor he built, continuing to serve on its board and remaining its largest investor. 

Casa has hired a search firm to line up Guo’s successor. Company chief financial officer Edward Durkin will serve as interim CEO until that individual is found and hired. 

Guo’s announcement didn't come at a particularly auspicious time, however, with Casa also reporting that a “major North American cable customer” won’t be using the company’s cable tech products in its ongoing network upgrade. 

”Although we will continue to receive maintenance revenue associated with that customer for 2023, we assume no future product revenues from their cable broadband infrastructure upgrade project in our 2023 guidance,” Durkin told equity analysts during Tuesday’s earnings call. 

“And although we were surprised and disappointed by this news, this was not attributable to any cost cable product issues,” Durkin added. 

So who is the client?

“We presume Charter has taken a pass on including Casa in its upgrades,” Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold wrote in an investor note. 

For the quarter, Casa reported revenue of $84.4 million, beating consensus forecasts. ■