Less than a week after unveiling lower-than-expected revenues for 2001,
online financial services provider Netzee Inc. accepted resignations from
President and General Manager Catherine Silver and Director of Marketing
Paul Golden.
Chief Executive Officer Donny R. Jackson will assume Silver’s duties and
Compass Bank’s Dan Anderson will be put in place as a senior vice president
in charge of all sales.
The changes comes on the heels of dismal financial news, which the firm
attributed to a slowdown in sales because of weak market conditions and the
underperformance of certain acquisitions.
Netzee estimated its 2001 revenues to be between $32 million and $36
million, a far cry from where previous analyst estimates pegged the firm’s
revenues at $55 million to $58 million.
Going forward, the company hopes to add 300 new financial institution
customers on its retail Internet banking products and about 150,000 new
retail customers in 2001. But it will need additional funding to do so,
according to
newly-appointed president Jackson.
“We remain confident that with more than 900 financial institutions
contracted on one or more of our Internet products, we have an established
franchise that will enable us to obtain the necessary funding,” Jackson
said.
Despite Jackson’s optimism, Robinson-Humphrey last week downgraded Netzee
from “buy” to “neutral” after lowered guidance last week.
The brokerage firm noted in its downgrade that overall development of
Internet banking market has been slow to evolve and that delayed
profitability creates concern during a time when Netzee needs $10 to $15
million of capital by December to continue its operations.
Netzee’s stock was down 6 percent to 94 cents a share at
midday trading Monday.
