August 15, 2025
The enterprise software landscape was shaken this week when OpenText announced the immediate departure of CEO Mark Barrenechea after 13 years at the helm. This move comes on the heels of disappointing fiscal results for 2025, which saw revenue plunge 10.4% to $5.17 billion and non-GAAP earnings drop by 8.4% to $3.82 per share. This announcement’s timing is particularly striking given the latest market developments. While OpenText is now struggling with declining revenues, pure-play SaaS and AI companies command premium valuations, with investors rewarding focused, cloud-native platforms that demonstrate clear growth trajectories. That context likely influenced the OpenText board’s decisive action and their stated intention to “explore portfolio-shaping opportunities that enhance focus on the Company’s core Information Management for AI business.”
The Critical Question: Is Digital Experience “Core” to OpenText?
Both customers and partners of OpenText’s Digital Experience (DX) division are wondering if the business unit will survive an upcoming portfolio rationalization. The DX division represents an estimated 10% to 20% of OpenText’s total revenue (approximately $500 million to $1 billion based on 2025’s fiscal year figures), and it is home to a number of significant product lines, including:
- Customer Communications Management: CCM represents a major part of the DX portfolio’s revenue. OpenText Communications (formerly Exstream) is its flagship CCM product, but there is a sizeable base of Streamserve and other CCM customers
- Fax: OpenText Fax is a very profitable legacy product that continues to benefit from strong customer interest that is particularly driven by the need for low-cost and secure interoperability in the US healthcare market
- Digital experience (DX) solutions: These were acquired and include OpenText Web CMS (formerly known as TeamSite), OpenText Digital Asset Management, and OpenText Contact Center Analysis (formerly Explore and Qfiniti)
- Proprietary DX Solutions: These include OpenText Core Journey, OpenText Customer Data and OpenText Core Messaging
Why DX Will Likely Stay at OpenText
Several factors suggest the DX business may indeed be considered “core” to OpenText’s future:
1. Tom Jenkins’ Strategic Vision
Executive Chair of the Board, P. Thomas Jenkins has a well-documented history of investing in content and experience management technologies. During his tenure as CEO from 1994 to 2005, Jenkins orchestrated several key acquisitions in content management, including IXOS Software AG (2003) and Artesia (2004). Then, when he served as Chief Strategy Officer from 2005 to 2013, he continued to champion strategic investments in digital experience capabilities. The string of acquisitions during Jenkins’ tenure as CSO included several companies that strengthened OpenText’s content and experience portfolio, namely:
- Vignette (2009): A major web content management platform
- StreamServe (2010): Customer communications and document automation
- Global 360 (2011): Business process and content management
This pattern suggests Jenkins understands the strategic value of connecting content management with a focus on improving customer experience.
2. AI-driven Experience Requires Communications Management
OpenText’s stated focus on “Information Management for AI” should strengthen the case for retaining its DX capabilities. In an AI-driven enterprise, any distinction between internal content (document management, content services) and external content (customer communications, digital experiences) will quickly blur. Modern AI applications require access to comprehensive content repositories to deliver personalized, contextual customer experiences that are optimized with the tone most likely to elicit the desired outcome and delivered to the customer’s chosen channels. OpenText’s unique position of managing both internal content repositories and external customer touchpoints could become a significant competitive advantage as enterprises look to deploy AI across their entire content ecosystem.
3. Current Leadership Investment
The appointment of Savinay Berry as Chief Product Officer in January 2025 could be another signal of OpenText’s intentions. Berry, who previously led Products and Engineering at Vonage (Ericsson), has made changes in the leadership within the DX business unit. This clearly suggests OpenText’s leadership sees potential in the division and is willing to invest in its future growth.
Berry’s background in cloud platforms and developer tools at Vonage aligns well with the modern demands of digital experience platforms. This could mean that OpenText is positioning DX for a more cloud-native, developer-friendly future – a future in which asynchronous, one-way communications give way to real-time, bi-directional interactions.
SMB vs. Enterprise Focus
While OpenText hasn’t explicitly detailed which assets it considers outside its core, industry analysis suggests its focus may be on divesting operations oriented toward small-to-medium businesses rather than enterprise-focused divisions. OpenText’s transformation over the past decade has included numerous acquisitions that brought both enterprise and SMB customers into the fold. If we look at it through this lens, then we might conclude that non-core asset could include:
- SMB-focused cloud services acquired through various deals
- Standalone point solutions that don’t integrate well with the broader platform
- Legacy on-prem offerings with limited growth potential
- Geographic or vertical-specific businesses that lack scale
This interpretation aligns well with the board’s emphasis on “Information Management for AI” – a positioning that better resonates with enterprise customers facing complex, multi-faceted information management challenges. Enterprise clients are also more likely to value OpenText’s integrated approach and are willing to pay premium prices for comprehensive platforms.
Conclusion
While the board’s commitment to divesting “non-core assets” will surely create uncertainty, the indicators we’ve outlined seem to suggest the DX business aligns well with OpenText’s strategic direction. Tom Jenkins’ historical investment patterns, the logical connection between information management and customer experience, and recent leadership investments in the DX division all point to its likely retention.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t guarantee the DX division’s future with OpenText. The board may still decide to divest these assets as part of its portfolio optimization strategy. Current market valuations indicate investors reward focus and execution over breadth. However, there’s an important distinction between strategic breadth in DX capabilities versus operational complexity from technical debt and legacy solutions. The challenge – and the opportunity – for OpenText lies in leveraging its DX platform’s comprehensive breadth (spanning content management, customer communications, digital asset management, and journey orchestration) while rationalizing the underlying technical infrastructure and eliminating redundant legacy solutions. At Aspire CCS, we have long advocated for the evolution toward Communications Experience Platforms (CXP), recognizing it as a critical capability for enterprise customers on the hunt for comprehensive customer experience solutions.
If OpenText can successfully position its integrated DX capabilities as essential to its “Information Management for AI” vision while delivering on platform modernization and technical consolidation, both the company and its customers could benefit from this transition. The next twelve to eighteen months will be critical in determining whether this strategic pivot delivers the growth and operational efficiency investors demand.