Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Iona shuffles front office

news
May 15, 20032 mins

Company seeks right-sizing

Struggling middleware and integration vendor Iona on Thursday announced major shakeups in its senior management ranks.

At the request of the Iona Board of Directors, the following persons have resigned: Barry Morris, CEO since May 2000; Steven Fisch, COO, with the company since August 2002; and David James, executive vice president of corporate development, who joined in 1997.

Company co-founder and Chairman Chris Horn takes over as CEO. Horn was the initial developer of Iona’s Orbix product and had been CEO until May 2000. Iona is based in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Mass.

Iona board member Kevin Melia, former CFO of Sun Microsystems, has been appointed chairman of the Board of Directors.

The company in making the changes is looking to “right-size,” a company representative said.

A tough economy has plagued the company and the board wants to go in a new direction, the representative said.  The company in April announced first quarter revenues of $17 million and a net loss per share of 36 cents.

For the previous year, Iona reported revenues of $123.2 million and a pro forma net loss of $28.1 million, or 88 cents per share. Pro forma results exclude amortization of purchased intangible assets, stock compensation, restructuring, impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, write-off of fixed assets and the associated tax effect.

Despite recent difficulties, Iona has $75 million in cash investments to target profitable growth for the future, according to Iona.

Horn, in a prepared statement, said, “I have enjoyed the challenges of working with Iona, its employees, customers and its products. I feel it is time to move on to a new challenge. It has been a privilege to lead Iona to the height of its success and to manage the company in difficult market conditions.”

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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