Symbol Shakes Up Senior Management

In Symbol's quarterly conference call Wednesday, Iannuzzi announced that Jan Burton, who has overseen Symbol's global partner program since 2003, will take over as vice president of Symbol's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations. Burton will continue to report to Todd Abbott, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Symbol, who will fill in for Burton until the company finds a replacement.

As part of Symbol's focus on promoting from within, Iannuzzi also announced changes in several key executive positions, including: Boris Melitsky, who will take over as senior vice president of the global products group; Ray Martino Jr., vice president and CTO; and Anthony Bartolo, who will become vice president and general manager of the RFID division at Symbol, Holtsville, N.Y.

"Basically what's going on is I am putting in place my own team to lead the company forward from where we are today," Iannuzzi said.

Leaving the company are Peter Lieb, senior vice president and general counsel, Todd Hewlin, senior vice president of corporate development, and John G. Bruno, senior vice president and general manager of the RFID division. Symbol does not anticipate further changes in the senior management and is working to recruit a new CFO and general counsel, Iannuzzi said.

Symbol reported net income during the quarter of $23.9 million, or 9 cents per share, down from $28.5 million, or 11 cents per share last year. Overall revenue also fell from $450.5 million to $438.9 million year-on-year. First quarter revenue will remain flat or slightly lower than Q4, with earnings per share targeted at 8 cents to 9 cents per share, Iannuzzi said.

Symbol's channel delivered strong results during the quarter, accounting for 75 percent of total revenue. The vendor also crossed the $1 billion in annual booking from the channel, according to Iannuzzi.

RFID products accounted for revenue of $5 million during the quarter, down from $15 million a year earlier, and overall RFID revenue was $36 million, compared to Symbol's target of $41 million. However, RFID will continue to be a critical marketing and R&D focus for Symbol, said Iannuzzi.

Although Symbol remains "extremely bullish" on the RFID market, Iannuzzi said, there could be volatility in the near term because RFID is highly dependent on the deployment schedules of early adopters such as the retail and government verticals.

Shares of Symbol were down 93 cents in after hours trading Wednesday.