Latest news with #Traub
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ken Traub Flexes Corporate Governance Muscles in Comtech Turnaround
Ken Traub named CEO of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL) in January after joining board in October Traub to oversee turnaround of Comtech, whose shares have lagged for several years Turnaround goals include operational discipline, supporting profitable growth, review of strategic alternatives and a stronger capital structure Comtech already announced $40 million capital infusion to shore up balance sheet Traub swiftly made a deal with activist investor, giving one Comtech board seat and agreeing on a turnaround plan Traub brings extensive track record with corporate governance cleanups, including successful turnaround of American Banknote Holographics American Bank Note Holographics saw a more-than 1,000% increase in shareholder value after sale to JDSU with Mr. Traub as President, CEO and director By John Jannarone and Jarrett Banks From corporate governance shortcomings to balance sheet worries, Ken Traub isn't afraid to roll up his sleeves when he sees a company facing big structural problems. His latest mission: Turning around Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (Nasdaq: CMTL) as its new CEO. Comtech, which provides satellite, wireless and terrestrial technologies for both commercial and military applications, hired Mr. Traub late last year as a director and within three months he ascended to President and CEO. He's been tasked with reviving the company, whose share price has fallen steadily over the last several years. He's targeting a number of initiatives to right the ship, including better operational discipline, a review of strategic alternatives and a stronger capital structure. He's already made a big step on the latter effort, announcing a $40 million capital infusion that helped cure covenant breaches on some debt, lowered interest rates and added financial flexibility. That deal, which was announced just weeks after Mr. Traub became CEO, highlights his ability to work with all stakeholders when a company is under strain. In this case, it was existing holders of Comtech's convertible preferred stock and subordinated debt who agreed to the deal. To appreciate Mr. Traub's skill set, it's important to know more about his unusual history with troubled companies. Most notably, he arrived for his first day on the job at CFO at American Bank Note Holographics, a company with roots in the 18th century as the original printer of U.S. currency, only to quickly discover problems with the books. 'I met with auditors and management and it took me one day to realize SEC misstatements had been made,' Mr. Traub said in an interview with CorpGov. (He noted ironically that American Bank Note Holographics was itself in the business of preventing fraud). It was the start of a wild ride, with Mr. Traub resigning only to be asked to return and advise the company as a consultant. 'I wanted to save the company,' he said. Indeed, Mr. Traub took decisive measures. He believed that the Department of Justice would probably indict the board and orchestrated the departure of all but one director and recruited a new one. Mr. Traub restructured the company's debt and regained the confidence of both creditors and employees, even settling with an activist. Ultimately, the company was sold to JDSU resulting in a 1,000%+ return to shareholders under his leadership as CEO. Mr. Traub took his playbook to more companies in the role of an activist investor with a laser focus on corporate governance improvements. He has worked alongside Starboard Value while it was still part of Ramius and served as Managing Partner, Raging Capital Management, LLC. 'I started identifying public companies that fell out of favor for fixable reasons,' he said. Mr. Traub sees parallels with Comtech and some of his other turnaround efforts. The company, facing an unusual activist attack from two former CEOs, sought Mr. Traub out and invited him to join the board. He said he was drawn to the company because he admired its rich history and important work involving satellite emergency response and applications on the battlefield. Recognizing the challenge of going to a proxy contest, Mr. Traub decided to make a deal with the activist and focus on improving operations immediately. Just after Mr. Traub joined the Board, Comtech was awarded a $50 million contract from the U.S. Navy for its SATCOM modems. At the end of November, he was elevated to Executive Chairman and in January 2025 became President and CEO. Immediately, Mr. Traub recognized serious problems. Some products were being sold at a negative gross margin and he made the decision to exits those lines of business. 'We couldn't hold onto them for cosmetic reasons,' he said. The company has also demonstrated momentum with new product launches since Mr. Traub took the helm as CEO. Those include a new multipath radio platform and the ELEVATE 2.0 multi-orbit satellite communications ('SATCOM') platform. Comtech has a foothold in the critical satellite communications industry, though it serves a different role than Elon Musk's Starlink, which focuses on delivering high-speed, low-latency broadband internet through satellites operating in low Earth orbit. Comtech, on the other hand, provides satellite network equipment, ground station solutions, and technologies that support both satellite and terrestrial communications. Comtech supplies infrastructure that enables satellite communications to function effectively—a feature that also makes it resilient to economic cycles. The company specializes in high-security, mission-critical applications and excels in solving complex, time-sensitive communication challenges. This includes partnerships with the U.S. Navy and Airforce, for whom it supplies anti-jamming modems. The company's financial profile reflects a serious opportunity for Mr. Traub to unlock. Comtech generates about $500 million in annual revenue with positive adjusted Ebitda. It sports a funded backlog of $763.8 million and revenue visibility of approximately $1.6 billion. Comtech is 'in the business of keeping the world safe but it had lost credibility among all stakeholders,' Mr. Traub said. 'We have got to change perspective and deliver.' Contact: Editor@ The post Ken Traub Flexes Corporate Governance Muscles in Comtech Turnaround appeared first on CorpGov. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Associated Press
29-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
STIHL Delivers a Positive 2024 Outcome and Sets Course for the Future
The STIHL Group increased its sales to 5.33 billion euros last year - an increase of 1.1 percent compared to the previous year (2023: 5.27 billion euros). Despite a year marked by restrained consumer spending, geopolitical uncertainty, and regional differences in economic development, 2024 sales remained well above pre-pandemic levels. The leading chainsaw and outdoor power tool manufacturer generated over 90 percent of its turnover outside its German home market. 'We are driving the transformation of our company from a position of strength,' emphasized Michael Traub, CEO of the STIHL Group, at the presentation of the 2024 annual figures. 'Despite economic headwinds, we remain strategically focused and continue to invest in future-facing technologies, innovative product solutions, and the development of our global sales and manufacturing footprint.' The increase in the Group's equity ratio from 65.9 percent to 69.0 percent demonstrates the financial stability of the family-owned company. Liquidity also improved, with all Group investments continuing to be financed from their own cash and cash equivalents. As of December 31, 2024, the STIHL Group employed 19,732 people worldwide, a slight decrease from the previous year (2023: 19,805). 'The shift to battery power is a decisive step in securing our technological leadership,' emphasized Traub. 'We're investing heavily in developing high-performance battery solutions and the supporting charging infrastructure – ensuring we meet the evolving expectations of our global customer base.' The complete press release is available at
USA Today
23-04-2025
- Business
- USA Today
'I'm alarmed': With recession fears rising, jobless benefits still fall short: Report
'I'm alarmed': With recession fears rising, jobless benefits still fall short: Report Show Caption Hide Caption Can you get unemployment if you quit? What to know about benefits. Being out of work doesn't mean you automatically qualify for unemployment benefits. Here's what to know before applying. During the COVID-19 recession, 22 million laid-off workers sought unemployment benefits, sparking chaos in the payment system and compounding the financial woes of jobless Americans. Five years later, with many forecasters predicting another downturn is likely in 2025, a far less burdened benefits system remains plagued by myriad problems that could hamper payments to Americans who lose their jobs in an economic slump, according to a new report. Nearly 1 in 5 unemployment insurance recipients say their benefits were inadequate, with a third complaining they've struggled with food insecurity despite the payments, according to a survey and study by the National Employment Law Project. Large shares of beneficiaries also lament delayed payments, jammed phone lines, hard-to-navigate websites and incorrectly denied benefits, among other issues, according to the survey, which was conducted in partnership with online polling firm YouGov in September. The firms surveyed 1,480 workers who were unemployed at some point from 2019 to 2024 and the results were provided exclusively to USA TODAY. 'I'm alarmed,' said Amy Traub, senior researcher and policy analyst for NELP and a co-author of the study. 'The unemployment insurance system is really falling far short in its function of supporting unemployed workers.' The gaps exist even though Congress provided $1 billion in the American Rescue Plan of 2021 to shore up jobless benefits. Traub said the money did foster more timely payments and website improvements but there are still shortcomings in those and other areas. States finance unemployment payments themselves while the federal government bankrolls the system's technology and infrastructure. Both are funded by payroll taxes that are generally paid by employers. Why do we have unemployment insurance? Besides helping workers make ends meet when they lose their jobs, jobless benefits bolster consumer demand, helping avoid – or dig the economy out of – a recession, the NELP report says. And the payments ensure that workers have enough time to find a job that best suits their skills, improving the efficiency of the labor market and economy. Economists surveyed say there's a nearly 50% chance of a recession because of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on imported goods, according to a survey by Wolters Kluwer Blue Chip Economic Indicators. JPMorgan Chase has put the odds at 60%. Among the lingering trouble spots with the system: Benefits fall short Nineteen percent of the unemployment recipients polled said the money they received wasn't enough to meet their financial needs, the survey showed. To be sure, the checks go a long way toward helping laid-off workers stay afloat. Of unemployment applicants who didn't receive benefits, 51% experienced hunger, 40% struggled to pay their rent or mortgage and 37% had a hard time paying medical bills, according to the survey. By contrast, among those obtaining payments, 33% went hungry at times, 29% had issues with housing payments and 30% couldn't pay medical costs. Yet it's troubling that about a third of beneficiaries still had difficulty covering basic expenses, Traub said. 'During the next recession, if we have large numbers of workers who lose their jobs, we want to be sure they're not going hungry or losing their homes,' she said. A big reason many recipients can't cover such necessities is the wide disparities among states in their benefit disbursements, Traub said. In early 2024, for example, Alabama workers received an average benefit of $252 a week, replacing 29% of their prior wage on average, while workers in Washington state got an average $721 a week, or 49% of their previous pay. On average across the U.S., unemployment covered 36% of a worker's previous pay. Also, most states provide up to 26 weeks of benefits – a standard that's typically expanded in a recession – but 13 states dole out checks for 12 to 21 weeks, including Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Alabama, Kansas and Florida, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Jammed phone lines, uncooperative websites, late payments During the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented surge of applicants struggled to obtain payments. Surprisingly, freshly laid-off workers nowadays, numbering about 200,000 each week, still face obstacles. From 2022 to 2024, about 22% of applicants said they couldn't reach their state unemployment office by phone, the same share as during the pandemic (2020-2021); 20% complained of hard-to-navigate websites vs. 23% during the health crisis; and 17% pointed to delays receiving payments, compared to 21% during the crisis. Many states beefed up staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting workers from other parts of state unemployment agencies to customer service, but moved them back to their old positions as the spike in applications ebbed, Traub said. In many cases, that left a reduced but still sizable share of workers struggling to access benefits. Employers discourage workers from applying Nearly 1 in 5 workers said an employer tried to deter them from applying for benefits, with 14% saying such steps included telling them they weren't eligible and 5% threatening retaliation if they applied. Employers may have the incentive to dissuade staffers from filing for unemployment because the taxes they pay to support the benefits system are based on the number of their workers who successfully file claims. 'It's not really up to the employer who's eligible and who's not,' Traub said. Incorrectly denied benefits About 17% of applicants polled said they were improperly denied benefits since the pandemic. The question of whether applicants are entitled to payments can get thorny, hinging on whether they were laid off or fired for cause, and whether they met thresholds for the number of hours they worked and the wages they earned in previous months, Traub said Discrimination About 7% of applicants said they faced discrimination because of race or other reasons when they sought benefits, the survey showed. In a related issue, a growing number of states are using new ID verification systems to detect fraud, according to the report, which was coauthored by researchers Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Sanjay Pinto. Twelve percent of Black workers report trouble verifying their identity, more than twice the share of white employees, according to NELP's survey. The NELP report pointed to facial recognition technology that's less accurate for people with darker skin and questions that rely on data from credit bureaus. Black workers are less likely to have substantial credit histories on file, the report said. Workers in Southern states face more hurdles Broadly, workers in Southern states are far more likely than those in other regions to complain of discrimination, delayed payments, low payment levels and inadequate duration of payments, the report said. It cited racism and a 'lack of adequate support for social infrastructure' that may more prevalent in the South. Among NELP's recommendations to bolster the system:
