Michael Saylor, a longtime software executive and enthusiastic proponent of cryptocurrency, has stepped down from his post as CEO of MicroStrategy, the company he co-founded in 1989. Saylor will move into the role of executive chairman.
The transition announcement was presented as Saylor’s intent to retract from the day-to-day operations of MicroStrategy so the executive can focus his efforts squarely on bitcoin acquisition and the development of the company’s crypto strategy.
Succeeding Saylor as CEO will be current MicroStrategy president Phong Le, a leadership change that Saylor and the executive team reported has been in the works for about seven years.
“I believe that splitting the roles of Chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business,” shared Saylor.
MicroStrategy released their second quarter 2022 financial results in conjunction with the leadership change, issuing a loss of $1.06 billion. This was largely attributable to an impairment charge of $917 million, due to a decrease in bitcoin value. MicroStrategy was the first publicly traded company to designate bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset.
Le has been deeply involved in the company’s activities in his near-decade with the company. Serving as president for the last two years, Le spearheaded migration of MicroStrategy’s software business to the cloud and will be responsible for facilitating all business operations and oversee the daily completion of the company’s corporate strategies as CEO.
In the second quarter earnings, MicroStrategy recorded $122.1 million in total revenues — a 2.6 percent drop from the comparable quarter in the previous year — and a gross profit of $96.9 million for the quarter.
Acknowledging these figures, Le nonetheless pointed to the “durability” of the enterprise software business and was optimistic about the company’s future.
“With total revenue growth on a constant currency basis, and 36% year-over-year growth in subscription services revenues, our business remains resilient even in light of the continuing macroeconomic uncertainties,” Le continued.
