The Exodus exodus

(Telephony) Web-management leader Exodus Communications is cutting costs and restructuring management to meet reduced revenue estimates, senior executives said in a conference call yesterday.

President and COO Don Casey, Chief Financial Officer Marshall Case, marketing head Beverly Brown, an executive vice president and three senior-level executives all have left the company in the last two weeks. Exodus publicly announced only Case’s departure, which happened yesterday.

“Frankly, we did not believe that the other changes that occurred recently were important enough to warrant a formal announcement,” said Ellen Hancock, chairman/CEO.

Only Brown’s departure was expected.

“The changes at the executive level reflect a variety of reasons, but the result is we have a solid executive team and a streamlined organization,” Hancock said.

She declined to discuss reasons for any of those departures, other than to note that Casey “has chosen to leave the company” and that Brown’s departure “has actually been in the works for some time due to personal reasons.”

In January Exodus suggested 2001 revenues would be $2 billion to $2.3 billion. Those estimates have been dropped to $1.5 billion and there will be cuts throughout the organization to meet them, Hancock said.

“We’re going to reassess into all the organizations, making them lighter, if you will,” she said.

She stopped short of blaming Case for the lowered expectations, but implied that a stronger presence might be needed in the CFO post. Richard Stoltz, a company founder who has stepped in as interim CFO, supported Case’s performance.

“Marshall’s departure is in no way related to our Q1 results from the guidance,” he said. “Marshall had laid the foundation for Ellen to go to the next step and bring in a CFO that will help us evolve the company that he helped us move to be a very strong marketing force in the market today.”

Hancock said a search for a new CFO is already under way.

“We’re going to focus on a CFO that has vision,” she emphasized. “We’re not exactly looking for an accountant; we’re looking for someone with vision, leadership and who can, with real enthusiasm, work with all of you (financial analysts) to explain our metrics, explain our model, explain why we think it’s a good business,” she said.

Exodus has been hit hard—as have all Internet-related companies—by the demise and suffering of dotcoms and the slowdown of brick-and-mortar companies to fill the Internet void.

“I think we’d like to see how this market evolves,” said Stoltz. “It’s clearly going to be up and I think as we get into the second half of the year we’ll have a better feeling.”