Web.com Group Inc (WWWW): Okumus Strikes Deal and Appoints Two Directors

According to a statement issued by Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW), one of the newly appointed directors, Rick Giuliani is the former CEO and President of Conversant, a digital marketing platform that has been recently sold to AllianceData. Second new director, Rick Rudman is the co-founder and former Chairman, CEO, and President of Vocus, a public relations and marketing software company that was sold to GTCR last year. Therefore both directors have a significant experience in founding and running software companies that will benefit the further growth of Web.com Group.

Even though the appointment of new directors is a win for Mr. Okumus, the investor might not stop there and further push for more changes at the company in order to maximize shareholder value. Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW)’s stock has significantly depreciated over the last year, losing around half of its value, underperforming the majority of its peers from the Internet content industry, which inched up by 6% over the same period. The decline came despite the company reporting financial results in line with the estimates over the last several quarters.

Therefore, Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) and its shareholders may benefit from the involvement of an activist investor and Okumus might found just the right time to step in. Aside from Mr. Okumus, several other investors went bullish on Web.com Group, as the previous round of 13F filings showed. Craig C. Albert’s Sheffield Asset Management raised its stake by 50% during the third quarter to 3.25 million shares. In addition, Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management and George Mccabe’s Portolan Capital Management raised their positions by 120% and 60% respectively to 669,500 shares and 445,900 shares respectively.

On the other hand, some of the key officers of Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) has been unloading shares throughout the last year. In December, Kevin Carney, the CFO of the company, and CEO David Brown sold around 32,900 shares and 211,700 shares respectively that had been purchased through exercise of their stock options. In addition, both Carney and Brown has been selling shares throughout the entire 2014. Another key figure of the company, Roseann Duran, the Chief People Officer of Web.com Group, sold 20,000 shares in November. Following their last transactions, Carney and Brown own 201,073 shares and 1.02 million shares respectively, while Duran holds 105,300 shares.

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