Cedar Point's Paff: 'Time for Someone Else to Come In'
CEO Departure Comes as Switch Provider Eyes IPO
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 1/30/2008 6:50:00 AM
Former Cedar Point Communications president and CEO Andy Paff said he’s leaving the company – which may file for an initial public offering at some point – on good terms.
“It was really time for someone else to come in,” Paff told Multichannel News. “I spent the last four years taking what was a startup to a significant company. We need to find somebody new, with some new energy.”
The voice-over-IP switch company, which announced Paff’s departure Wednesday, appointed board member Curt Hockemeier as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent replacement. “I’m very comfortable with Curt in the CEO role,” Paff said. “I think the timing was excellent for everybody.”
In its annual ranking of fastest-growing private companies, Inc. magazine in September 2007 listed Cedar Point in second place based on revenue growth from $455,204 in 2003 to $68.1 million in 2006. The magazine also listed Cedar Point in the top spot on its ranking of 100 companies intending to go public.
Cedar Point has indicated it may go public but has not filed a registration statement yet with the Securites and Exchange Commission. Chief financial officer Don Halsted said the company has "no immediate plans around filing an IPO" but said that is a viable option at some point in the future.
Halsted confirmed that Cedar Point’s sales for 2006 were about $68 million and said revenues for last year were “flattish.” However, he added, the company reduced its reliance on one very large customer in 2006 to have a more diversified revenue base last year. Halsted would not say whether Cedar Point is profitable.
Hockemeier, who joined the Cedar Point board in February 2003, previously was president and CEO of Arbinet-thexchange, an exchange for telecommunications companies to buy and sell voice minutes. Before that, he was chief operating officer for AT&T Broadband’s telephony operations.
Paff said he will remain a large shareholder of privately held Cedar Point; he declined to specify the size of his stake. The Derry, N.H.-based company hired Paff in December 2003.
Cedar Point has raised $85 million in financing from investors including Ascent Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital, Focus Ventures, J.P. Morgan and Star Ventures.
For the immediate future, Paff said he doesn’t have plans to work with a new venture. “I’m going to take a little bit of a rest, if you know what I mean,” he said.
Cedar Point’s customers include Comcast, Charter Communications, Insight Communications, Bresnan Communications and RCN. The company says operators use its switches to offer voice-over-IP service to 4 million households worldwide.
Cedar Point CEO Departs
01/30/2008Calling New CEO
02/02/2008Cedar Point Gets $20M in Funding
04/13/2004
