assessment that Verifone is a company in constant turmoil. I joined the company in April, 2015 based what seemed to be promising recent changes in the executive management ranks and their new vision for where the company was going. Additionally, they had just moved into a new headquarters in San Jose to accommodate the expected growth. Unfortunately, what I have experienced since joining is far from a promising reinvented Silicon Valley growth company. I've worked for three very successful Silicon Valley companies over the past 15 years, so I have good basis of comparison.
It's difficult to pinpoint the reasons for Verifone's problems but one thing without doubt is that this does not feel like a typical SV company. The atmosphere is lifeless and bland as if the blood has been s---ed out of most the people. There does seem to be some small cliques of interpersonal relations, but no overall espirit de corps. Most of the people I know that have recently come here from other SV companies are looking for the first opportunity out the door ... that's if we don't get reorganized out first.
My theory on why things are like they are here are that the executive management and much of the next level of recent management are mostly SV outsiders and don't really understand how companies are successful here. The CEO and is a New York banking guy from Citicorp and he has brought in seven or eight Citicorp execs. The Ops and Engineering areas have been populated by management moved in from the east coast, midwest and Canada; primarily companies like Motorola, Blackberry, Lenova, and NCR. These folks are smart but they just don't get how SV works. They are from old line companies that have either died or had near death experiences ... and now they've come here to show us how business is done! They don't understand that people vitality is what gets it done here ... and if you kill that spark then even the best laid plans will never be achieved.
Verifone reorged quite a few people out the last week of June and I talked to five of those people before they left and what struck me about all of them was how happy they seemed to be. Usually people are in shock when they lose their jobs suddenly, so their reaction confirmed my feelings that there is something terribly wrong here.