Israeli firm Nice names SAP’s Russell as CEO, Q2 profit beats estimates

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli cloud software provider Nice on Thursday named SAP executive Scott Russell as its new chief executive, replacing Barak Eilam, who will step down at the end of the year after a decade as CEO.

Russell, who will assume his new role on January 1, 2025, has served as chief revenue officer at the German software company for 14 years and is a member of its executive board.

He will be based in Nice’s Hoboken, New Jersey office.

Eilam, who has worked at Nice for a total of 25 years, announced in May that he would step down from his position at the end of the year but would continue as a strategic consultant in the first half of 2025.

The CEO’s announcement came as Nice reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter net income growth. Diluted earnings per share came in at $2.64, excluding one-time items, compared with $2.13 a year earlier. Revenue rose 14% to $664.4 million.

Nice was expected to post adjusted earnings of $2.58 per share on revenue of $663.5 million, according to LSEG data.

It maintained its 2024 revenue forecast of $2.715 billion to $2.735 billion, up 15% from the midpoint, and raised its adjusted 2024 earnings per share forecast to $10.60 to $10.80, up 22% from 2023, from $10.53 to $10.73.

Analysts are forecasting earnings per share (EPS) of $10.63 and revenue of $2.73 billion.

Nice shares rose 7.2% in afternoon trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, cutting its losses for the whole of 2024 to 9%.

Under Eilam’s leadership, the company became a key player in the enterprise cloud and AI software market, while tripling revenues—cloud revenues grew from almost nothing to $1.6 billion—and earnings per share.

Eilam was last year one of the main critics of the judicial reform plan to be introduced by the Israeli government.

Prior to joining SAP, Scott worked at IBM and PWC, where he also served as President of SAP North America and other businesses.

Nice CEO David Kostman said Scott’s global enterprise software experience “will be critical as we lead Nice through its next phase of growth” and “as we continue to execute on our platform strategy leveraging cloud, digital and AI.”

Scott said he looks forward to leading Nice to continued growth. “We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us as NICE continues to lead digital and AI transformation and provides a unique platform for growth in the years to come.”

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by David Holmes)