Earlier this week, I was speculating about Jive’s possible upside in 2013 results (see Various market analysts now tracking Jive, and tomorrow we’ll hear 2013 results). Despite being recently picked up by some market analysts as a Buy or Hold, Jive had released its results and sales are down. The company reported sales of $39.3 million in the fourth quarter, up from $32.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Annual sales grew to $145.8 million, up 28 percent from 2012. But the growth rate is slowing: up 18% in 2013, from 28% in ’12, and 47% the year before.

Losses are increasing. The company lost $22.3 million in the fourth quarter, or 32 cents a share, compared to $15.6 million, or 24 cents a share, in the last quarter of 2012. In all, the company lost $75.4 million, or $1.12 a share, compared to  $47.4 million, 76 cents a share, in 2012.

CEO Tony Zingale said he was happy with the numbers, which is positioned as investing in future growth, but I can’t see it that way. The slowing growth of the company in a growing marketplace translates to mountin sales pressue from Microsoft, IBM, and other competitors.

In the summer, Zingale talked of poor sale execution in large corporate deals being a factor, which led to a landslide in the stock price. Clearly there is something not working here on the sales side, and I can’t imagine that the board of directors will tolerate mounting losses of this scale and slowing growth without a change of direction and perhaps a new CEO. On the call discussing the results, Zingale stated that Jay Larson, President of Worldwide Field Operations, is leaving the company. So maybe he’s the one taking the hit. The head of sales, John McCracken, who reported to Larson, will be filling that role while they search for a replacement.

I have speculated that Elisa Steele, the new CMO and EVP of strategy who joined the firm just recently might have come for exactly that purpose. If I am right, in very short order we would see the departure of Zingale and John McCracken, as well as Steele’s assuming the CEO role. In the earnings call, Zingale spoke about her working to ‘sharpen the marketing message’ so maybe she is just a CMO, and not a CEO-in-waiting. We’ll see. The another reasonable scenario would be a sale of the company, but at a market capitalization of $557M, it looks too expensive.

The stock fell 8.5% in after hours trading, and will likely open just above $8, down from an YTD high of just above $11 a share.