Sonus Sees Sales Shakeup

VOIP equipment maker Sonus Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS) has seen a shakeup in its sales and marketing team, and those add to a list of top management changes the company has seen in the past few months.

Sources say problems within the sales organization led to the recent dismissal of Sonus's VP of worldwide sales, James Collier. Collier was replaced by Mohammed Shanableh, who was VP of sales engineering at the time. (See Sonus Changes Sales Chief .)

The company did away with its COO position after Bert Notini stepped down. Then Sycamore's Richard Gaynor arrived to be the new CFO, replacing Ellen Richstone. (See Gaynor Lands at Sonus, Sonus Hires Gaynor, and Analysts Question Sonus Forecast.)

"We should have the best management team out there, people with passion and commitment to drive the company forward. Hassan's focus is on making sure he has the right team in place," says company spokeswoman Jocelyn Philbrook.

"I think that business within Sonus has been improving, which is getting Hassan some political strength that he may not have had before," says one analyst, who asked not to be named. "And I think some of the restructuring of management is because he's in a position where he can actually put more of his own imprint into it."

There has "definitely been some reorganization going on, at least within the sales and marketing team," says another analyst close to the company.

So while some are leaving, other sales spots are being filled as a source tells us there's some "retooling" going on because of the new sales leadership.

Sonus's Philbrook says the company is not downsizing, but she concedes that headcount isn't exactly stable. "If you look at the headcount at the end of the year, it's always in flux, so I can't tell you where it will be.

"But I can tell you that we are looking to expand our sales team and our marketing team."

— Ryan Lawler, Reporter, Light Reading