DocuSign chief says company focused on growing as a public entity after reports of private equity interest

DocuSign, a contract management platform, is focusing on developing as a public company and demonstrating its AI potential to investors, according to CEO Allan Thygesen. This comes following reports of private equity interest in the firm.

“We’re focused on building a great, independent public company,” Thygesen told CNBC earlier this week during a partner event the company hosted in London. “I joined DocuSign as a public company, it’s a very exciting time right now, so that’s our plan.”

DocuSign, which provides a popular service that allows users to digitally sign contracts, was said to have been approached by bidders Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman earlier this year, according to Reuters and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the situation.

Reuters and Bloomberg both claimed that the private equity groups were competing to buy DocuSign for around $13 billion. According to a February Reuters story, Bain Capital and Hellman & Freshman have halted their pursuit of DocuSign owing to differences about how much they should spend to acquire the company.

CNBC has been unable to independently confirm the stories.

When questioned by CNBC if he could corroborate rumors about PE buyers’ previous interest in DocuSign, Thygesen stated, “I can’t comment on anything that may or may not have happened in the past.”

CNBC contacted Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman, but they were unavailable for comment.

Thygesen added: DocuSign refused to rule out the possibility of an M&A (merger and acquisition) transaction in the future, telling CNBC: “In the future, if something comes up — of course, you can never close the door on any transaction.”

However, he stated, “We’re extremely focused on developing a fantastic independent company. We believe we have a tremendous opportunity, so that is what we are doing.

In February, DocuSign revealed plans for a company restructure, which included a decision to lay off 6% of its global personnel, with the majority of the cuts hitting sales and marketing activities.

The restructuring plan is expected to cost the company $28 million to $32 million, which will be made up mostly of cash expenditures for employee transfer, notice period, and severance payments, as well as non-cash expenses connected to the vesting of share-based awards.

DocuSign stated in a statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission at the time that it was adopting these restructuring steps to “realize its multi-year growth aspirations as an independent public company.”

AI will have ‘profound’ influence.
DocuSign has been attempting to persuade investors of the company’s AI-driven future, having made numerous noteworthy announcements of AI-powered products this year, as well as an agreement to acquire Lexion, an AI-based contract management platform, for $165 million in cash.

Thygesen has also overseen the company’s complete rebranding, which includes a new logo and a refresh of the brand.

He also revealed DocuSign’s new product emphasis, “Intelligent Agreement Management,” or IAM. IAM is a more automated form of DocuSign’s Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) procedure, which includes the entire path of a contract from pre-signature to post-signature management.

“I think we have mostly convinced investors that there’s adults in charge, they’re ahead of the plan, that we’ve stabilized things, and now they want to see how we do with this new stuff,” Thygesen stated.

“So we’re going to go and do that and, if we do that, we have a very exciting opportunity for shareholders, for customers, for employees, for everyone,” he stated.

Thygesen believes AI will have a “very profound” impact “across industries, functions, and sizes.”

“I feel privileged to be part of that in a company that I think is particularly well-positioned to take advantage of that,” Thygesen stated. However, he stated, “Even if I wasn’t, I’d be looking for where this is going to impact the business, no matter what business I was running.”