Symbol Reaffirms Channel Committment In Light of CEO Departure

With change comes speculation, but buzz in the channel surrounding the departure of Symbol Technologies CEO Bill Nuti is so far quiet.

The company, which maintains it's business as usual, has named CFO Sal Iannuzzi interim CEO, and isn't anticipating any other executive departures at this time. For most VARs, word of Nuti's departure came with an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

"We did not preannounce the departure, but I did personally call some of our larger channel partners on Monday morning, as did others in management," says Jan Burton, vice president of worldwide channel sales at Symbol. "What most wanted to hear was that we are still on board with the channel. They personally regret Bill deciding to leave, but they're absolutely committed to Symbol, and absolutely believe in the whole executive team."

Nuti joined Symbol in 2002 with a top priority to pull the company out of financial scandal. He did succeed somewhat, but couldn't avoid recent layoffs and shaky revenue. His departure could bring further financial woes; the company's stock price fell from about $11.13 when Wall Street opened Monday to $9.85 at day's end. It has dipped further since, currently hovering at about $9.50, though that's not atypical following a managerial shakeup.

"We are continuing to grow our business," Burton says. "Many of our channel partners are profitable with our product line. Some of our issues have come from the stability of revenue streams, and some of that is influenced by reporting methodologies that had to be used for the channel. Clearly, [partners] want to help us with that."

Not surprisingly, Symbol partners are remaining relatively quiet in wake of the news, many pointing to internal policies to "not comment about valued business partners' internal matters."

Others expressed support. "We were called right away on Monday morning, told of Bill's departure and asked about our concerns," says Bonney Shuman, CEO of Norcross, Ga.-based Stratix, which also received a visit by Burton on Thursday. "While we are disappointed to see Bill go, we truly expect business as usual from a partner perspective, especially for the short term."