Rackspace Founder Hits Road to Soothe Investors After CEO Leaves
February 14, 2014
Grazed from Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Author: Ari Levy.
Rackspace Hosting Inc. co-founder Graham Weston, who took over as chief executive officer this week, is meeting with shareholders face-to-face after the company’s stock plunged on news of his predecessor’s retirement. Weston came to San Francisco, where investors gathered for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s technology and Internet conference. The returning CEO said he’s sitting down with about a dozen shareholders to reassure them about the company and that he’s “energized.” Taylor Rhodes, Rackspace’s recently appointed president, spoke at the conference.
Rackspace shares tumbled 19 percent on Feb. 11, the day after Lanham Napier, the company’s CEO for eight years, said he’s retiring immediately. Weston, who founded San Antonio-based Rackspace in 1998 and has remained chairman, said that while the news surprised investors, he wanted to avoid following the path of Microsoft Corp., which announced Steve Ballmer’s departure as CEO without having a successor in place…
“I saw what Ballmer had done and didn’t think it was all that beneficial,” Weston, who is interim CEO and turns 50 next month, said in an interview. “They were in limbo. We wanted to show we have a leader who’s energized and ready to plow ahead and excited to be there.”…
Read more from the source @ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-14/rackspace-founder-hits-road-to-soothe-investors-after-ceo-leaves
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