McAfee CEO, Chairman Retires After Probe
Antivirus and security software provider McAfee Inc. on Wednesday said it fired President Kevin Weiss, and announced that CEO and Chairman George Samenuk will retire after a stock options investigation found accounting problems that will require financial restatements.
The company said board member Dale Fuller will serve as interim CEO and president in the wake of the management shakeup. Fuller joined McAfee's board in January and has previously served as president and CEO of Borland Software Corp. Its shares rose 97 cents, or almost 4 percent, to $26.76 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange after the news.
McAfee said it determined it will need to restate certain financial results to record additional non-cash charges for stock-based compensation expense over a 10-year period. The charges are likely to range between $100 million and $150 million, the company said.
"I regret that some of the stock option problems identified by the special committee occurred on my watch," Samenuk said in a statement.
The company also named Charles J. Robel as non-executive chairman. Robel has been a board member since June.
McAfee said it has created a search subcommittee to find a permanent CEO and will look at both internal and external candidates.
McAfee disclosed in June that securities regulators had opened a formal investigation into the possible manipulation of the company's stock options.
It is one of many companies to run into problems by backdating options to days when the company's stock price was lower, thus boosting executive payouts. At least 130 companies have disclosed SEC, Department of Justice or internal investigations into options practices, according to a review by The Associated Press.
Other top executives also have been ousted or left their positions as a result of the probes. Not long after McAfee announced its shakeup, San Francisco-based online publisher CNET Networks Inc. said Wednesday that co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Shelby Bonnie has resigned as chairman and CEO.
Software maker Mercury Interactive Corp., one of the first companies to disclose problems with backdated options, last year dumped CEO Amnon Landan, as well as its chief financial officer and general counsel.
Perhaps the most famous executive caught up in the options scandal is Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, the fugitive former CEO of software company Comverse Technology Inc. He's in the southern African nation of Namibia, awaiting extradition to the United States to face charges of manipulating options.
Source: AP, 10/11/06
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