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Spate of leadership changes continues with security software vendor and web media giant

A run of chief executive departures at technology companies continued yesterday with the news that the CEOs of security vendor Symantec and web media giant Yahoo! are preparing to step down.

John Thompson, Symantec’s CEO, will retire from the position at the end of the financial year, but will retain the position of chairman. His replacement will be Enrique Salem, Symantec’s chief operating officer. Salem was previously chief executive of BrightMail, an anti-spam technology vendor that Symantec acquired in 2004.

“Over the past ten years, John has led the effort to diversify Symantec’s customer base and has grown the company’s revenue tenfold. The board appreciates all he has done for Symantec and his leadership in driving the succession planning process,” said Robert Miller, a Symantec director.

Meanwhile, web pioneer Yahoo! revealed that its CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, is also to step down.

The past 12 months have seen Yahoo!’s share price steadily tumble, thanks in part to its reluctance to accept an acquisition offer from Microsoft. While Yang was initially against the bid, saying Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company, he said recently that he thought the deal would benefit both parties.

During the course of the acquisition talks, serial shareholder activist Carl Icahn (last seen pressuring BEA’s board of directors to accept Oracle’s advances) took a significant stake in the company. He is said to have put similar pressure on Yang.

Explaining his knack of improving the performance of the companies in which he invests, Icahn told the Wall Street Journal that it was often a case of dislodging an inferior CEO. “These CEOs, with many exceptions, are very mediocre guys," he said.

Further reading

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