Plano-based DZS, a global leader of access, optical, and AI-driven cloud software solutions, announced that Todd Jackson and Paul Choi have been appointed to its board of directors.
“Todd and Paul join our board of directors at an important time as we focus on our strategic growth pillars spanning the Americas and Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australia/New Zealand regions,” DZS President and CEO Charlie Vogt said in a statement. “There are many positive workstreams underway. Our audit committee is in the final phase of selecting a new independent registered public accounting firm and, together with our finance team, is laser focused on completing the restatement of the financial statements for the year-end 2022, each quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, as well as filing the outstanding reporting periods in 2023.”
DZS said that Jackson is an accomplished attorney who brings 30 years of M&A advisory and transaction experience to the board with more than $30 billion in transactions closed.
Choi is the CEO of Invites Ventures, the purchaser in the company’s recent private placement, and brings to the board a valuable background in M&A and investment banking.
New investments and a strategic shift
The company said that Jackson and Choi join its board following three strategic transactions: securing $25 million of working capital via two transactions, a private placement of DZS common stock and a term loan; the planned divestiture of the company’s lower margin Asia business, which, upon closing, will eliminate $43 million of debt; and provide an additional $5 million of working capital.
Vogt said that the recent investments “provide validation and confidence in management’s vision and strategy to capitalize on the opportunity in front of us.”
The company said that the sale of the Asia business is expected to close in the first quarter.
“DZS is focused on closing the divestiture of our Asia business unit and executing our growth playbook,” Vogt said.
The shift away from Asia follows an announcement last fall that DZS was bringing its high-speed fiber optic solutions to Europe through a new partnership with French telecom company Orange.
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