Diligent was founded by Brian Henry and Kiri Borg in 1994 as Manhattan Creative Partners (MCP) which consulted and hosted secure websites for financial institutions,
mutual funds and insurance companies. Diligent began developing Boardbook in early 2001, when AIG Sunamerica, requested a secure automation of board documents. In 2003, Henry and Borg formed Diligent Partners, together with Sharon Daniels, Dan Kiley, Kenneth Carroll, Alessandro Sodi, Marc Daniels and Robert Craig. Diligent released a statement clarifying that Gerald Henry was not associated with the company. The day following Diligent's listing, the company announced Henry's resignation as CEO due to the oversight of the disclosure of this information. However, some journalists at the time claimed that Diligent's PR firm and attorneys "should have advised Henry to publicly acknowledge his history." Diligent's share price collapsed to $0.14 by March 2009, but later recovered to lead the pack of technology listings.
Company growth and revenue restatement issues With the release of the
Apple iPad in 2010, Diligent developed an app for this new platform and commenced a period of explosive growth in client numbers. Diligent made its first operating profit in 2012. Between 2011 and 2012, company revenue grew by 165%. By mid-2013, the Diligent stock price had reached over $8.00 NZD a share. In August 2013, Diligent announced that it would need to restate revenue for the current and preceding three years due to discrepancies in company accounting practices. No fraud was involved, though the company was required to recognize revenue from the date of a contract being signed rather than the start of a month, and its installation fees recognized over a longer period of time. The company also acknowledged that its accounting systems were underdeveloped and required improvement. It was fined by the NZX for a number of minor breaches of listing rules. Alessandro Sodi stepped down as CEO in 2015 to focus on the launch of Diligent Teams as Chief Product Strategy Officer. Sodi was succeeded by current CEO
Brian Stafford, an ex-Mckinsey partner and software-as-a-service specialist.
Return to private ownership On 14 February 2016, Diligent announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Insight Partners for consideration of $4.90 per share, valuing the company at $624M USD, subject to approval from the shareholders. A Shareholder meeting was held in
Auckland, NZ on 13 April 2016 and having received 57% votes in favor of the Merger (as it was structured), Diligent
de-listed from the NZX and returned into private hands. The merger was opposed by the NZ Shareholders Association who considered the offer too low, stating that "the current offer is low compared to where the company's prospects have been in the past" and Manzama. In December 2018, Diligent announced the launch of the Diligent Institute, a think tank aiming to provide customers with global research on governance practices.
Modern Leadership Initiative In June 2020, Diligent launched its Modern Leadership Initiative and partnered with more than 20
private equity companies to improve board-level diversity. Each private equity firm agreed to open board seats of five of their portfolio companies to racially diverse candidates. The private equity firms included
Insight Partners,
Vista Equity Partners,
Hellman & Friedman,
Hg,
Genstar Capital,
The Jordan Company, and
TA Associates, and also
New Mountain Capital,
Francisco Partners, Heidrick & Struggles,
Egon Zehnder, and the
American Investment Council. == Corporate affairs ==