Update to Customers and Partners on Business Activity and COVID-19 Relief Efforts

Ed Meyercord President and Chief Executive Officer Published 18 May 2020

To our valued customers and partners:

I hope this letter finds you and your families safe and well. This has been a challenging time for all of us, as individuals and as organizations, as we adapt to the challenges presented by COVID-19 and attempt to navigate the future of work, and what our “new normal” will look like. Now more than ever, Extreme is here for you to provide the resources, solutions, and flexibility you need to navigate these challenging times. Following is an update on our business, and the efforts we have undertaken to help all of you in these uncertain times.

Cloudification Efforts Are Well Underway

As a distributed enterprise, Extreme invested in cloud-driven collaboration tools, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams, well in advance of the pandemic. Thus, we were well prepared to enable 97% of our employees to work from home seamlessly.

While working from home, our teams completed the integration of Aerohive and rolled out our cloud management solution, ExtremeCloud IQ, across our wireless access points. In early April, we introduced a simplified Pilot subscription model for cloud management across many of our wired switching solutions ahead of schedule. Pilot drives deep AI and ML-based management capabilities across much of our portfolio, delivering unparalleled data and business insights. The capabilities and differentiation of our ExtremeCloud IQ application continue to drive growth and adoption, with over 5,000 new customer accounts added on the platform and over 40,000 new devices under management since last quarter. In April alone, we added over 20,000 new devices under management. Traffic growth has grown 50% in the application since the pandemic began and 60% since last quarter.

Solutions You Need Now

Our teams have been working closely with our customers and partners impacted by COVID-19 – and the stories and positive outcomes are heartwarming. Further demonstrating the value of cloudifying our portfolio, we rolled out a Rapid Outdoor Connectivity Kit (ROCK) to help hospitals and other organizations swiftly extend secure wireless connectivity to pop-up sites in support of quarantine, testing, and patient care. We also worked closely with our customers to help them set-up remote working and learning environments with Portable Branch Kits (PBK) and we continue to lend our support to our customers that are most in need.

Financial Assistance

We introduced LEAP – our Lending Enablement & Assistance Program – to support the operational vitality of our channel partners and the customers they serve through the COVID-19 pandemic. LEAP offers flexible, low interest financing, deferred payments, and free training, as well as reduced growth rebate targets, extended partner leveling requirements and training for qualified channel partners across the Americas and Europe through September 30, 2020. For details, please work with your local sales or channel representative for specific financing options available in your region.

Events and Meetings

To protect the health and well-being of our customers, partners, and employees, we’ve postponed all near-term, in-person events while turning others into virtual events, such as webinars and livestreams. We’ve rescheduled our Extreme Connect Americas user conference to June 7-10, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee.  We are evaluating whether to move forward with Extreme Connect Europe, scheduled to take place September 14-17 in Berlin.

Supply Chain

Our manufacturing supply chain is operating at 100% capacity in our Asian facilities and 50-60% in our non-Asian facilities, up from 40% in late February. We expect to be near 100% in June, which will enable us to fully meet your networking needs in the coming weeks. We continuously monitor for updates in regions where there may be temporary shipping restrictions. 

Business Update

We recently announced our third quarter FY20 financial results, reporting $210 million in revenue.  While we saw many customer orders delayed at the height of COVID-19 towards the end of our March quarter, we ended in a robust financial position with nearly $200 million in cash and have seen a sharp rebound in our June quarter to date.We’ve accelerated several strategic initiatives at Extreme that will position us well as demand for cloud-driven, distributed networking solutions grows in a post-pandemic environment, and can assure you that we will come out of this crisis in a stronger position than ever before.

The personal and business challenges that all of us have faced over the last few months have been tremendous. However, please know that our innovation engine and commitment to providing you with effortless networking solutions remains steadfast. As always, our team stands ready to assist you in any way we can so you can continue to thrive and advance in the months to come. Please feel free to reach out to your local sales and channel leaders with concerns or questions.

Sincerely,

Ed Meyercord

President and CEO

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