Britain's biggest technology firm Sage has shown its ruthless streak, sacking around 30 top execs over the last three weeks.
The announcement came as the FTSE 100 firm today confirmed half-year revenue growth had slowed. Figures were in line with a surprise trading update on 13 April that had sent investors scurrying for cover.
More than £1bn has been wiped off Sage's market value since mid-April, with markets spooked about the firm's top line performance.
The "senior executive" departures would enable Sage to "simplify the organisation, speeding up decision making and improving accountability", the firm said today.
Shares slipped a further one per cent as markets opened this morning.
Revenue growth was 6.3 per cent in the six months to 31 March, down from 7.4 per cent. The firm posted £908m of organic sales. Underlying profit dipped 0.7 per cent to £222m.
But Sage underlined its cash generative qualities, almost all (99 per cent) of its underlying profit was converted into cash. This enabled the firm to increase its dividend by 8.2 per cent to 5.65p per share.
Read more: Almost £1bn has just been wiped off the value of the UK's biggest tech firm
Chief executive Stephen Kelly insisted "a significant market opportunity… is compelling and unchanged".
He said:
Organic revenue growth in [the first-half] was around £5m below our expectations, due to slower and more inconsistent sales execution than we had planned for.
"We have already started the implementation of robust plans to address these execution issues and to accelerate our growth through high-quality recurring revenue throughout the rest of 2018 and beyond."
Read more: Zut alors! Sage shares hit by sluggish French performance
[contf] [contfnew] 
CityAM
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
