HP Veteran to Replace CEO of Israel-Based Industrial Printer Company Kornit

Ronen Samuel, former head of HP Indigo, will take office in August after current CEO Gabi Seligsohn steps down

Dror Reich 12:5305.06.18
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HP veteran Ronen Samuel will replace Kornit Digital Ltd.’s CEO Gabi Seligsohn who will step down August 1, the company announced Monday. Following the announcement, Kornit’s stock dropped 2.58% to $17 by the end of trade Monday.

 

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Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Rosh HaAyin, a town in central Israel, Nasdaq-listed Kornit manufactures industrial inkjet printers for the garment industry, as well as pigmented ink and related chemical products. The company went public in 2015, raising $71 million on a $305 million valuation. The company reported revenue of $31.1 million for the first quarter of 2018, up 14.8% from the year before.
Kornit's exiting CEO Gabi Seligsohn. Photo: PR
Kornit's exiting CEO Gabi Seligsohn. Photo: PR
Mr. Seligsohn has been CEO of Kornit since 2014 and will remain on the company’s board of directors, the company said in a statement. Prior to joining Kornit, Mr. Seligsohn served as president and CEO of Nasdaq-listed meteorology company Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd.

 

For the past 4 years, after holding various positions at HP since 2006, Mr. Samuel has headed HP Indigo, an Israel-based digital offset printer company, which was acquired by HP in 2001 and has since operated as a division of the multinational computer and printer company. Last year, Kornit signed a deal to supply Amazon with industrial printers intended for Merch, a T-shirt manufacturing and distribution service by Amazon that lets users offer their own designs and collect royalties from sales. As part of the deal, Amazon was given a five-year warrant to acquire up to about 2.9 million of Kornit’s common shares at $13.03 per share. Per the agreement, vesting is dependent on payments made by Amazon for the purchase of goods and services from Kornit. The deal is yet to be actualized.

 

In a September filing, Kornit reported it anticipated a revenue shortfall of $7 million to $10 million caused by a single customer that is unable to receive a scheduled delivery of a large number of products due to unforeseen regulatory delays.