After a crazy week in which electronic health record giant Allscripts fired chairman Phil Pead and shares of its stock plummeted 36 percent, the company announced a slight return to normalcy by appointing Pead's replacement.
Dennis Chookaszian, who has been a member of Allscripts' board since September 2010, will take over for Pead, who was fired last Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Pead was ousted after "extensive deliberations" by the company's board, according to Dow Jones, and three other directors on the board--Catherine Burzik, Eugene Fife and Edward Kangas--immediately stepped down in protest of the decision.
A sense that Allscripts was not capitalizing on the federal government's push for EHR adoption, in addition to lingering frustrations from the company's 2010 purchase of Eclipsys--where Pead, Fife and Kangas all previously served as board members--likely were key in the decision-making process to fire Pead, according to Dow Jones.
"I think that boards generally take a longer term view than any one quarter," Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman said on a conference call on April 26. "While we don't like to rest on our laurels, there's no question that this was a difficult quarter. ... That said, I think if you look at the history of mergers; sometimes you start off with two companies, sometimes those two companies have a different view of the future and the direction that the organization should go and who should take the organization in that direction."
Allscripts earnings were at 12 cents per share, with revenue rising 9 percent to $364.7 million, as Associated Press reported in another article. Analysts, however, had expected earnings of 24 cents per share and $387.5 million in revenue.
Monday morning, Allscripts shares rose 41 cents to $10.71; the company announced that it had approved a repurchase up to $200 million in stock.
To learn more:
- read the AP article on Chookaszian's appointment
- check out the Dow Jones article (subscription required)
- listen to the Allscripts conference call
- read through the company's latest earnings report
- here's another AP article