Unisys CEO Joseph McGrath Exits Troubled Company

McGrath will work with the board of directors during an executive search for his replacement, and is expected to formally cut ties with the company by the end of the year, the company said.

Unisys' stock has plummeted roughly 60 percent during McGrath's tenure, according to the The New York Times.

"The board of directors and Mr. McGrath agreed that a change in leadership would best enable Unisys to move forward on accelerating execution of the company's strategy," the company said in a statement.

In second quarter results for the period ending June 30, Unisys reported that revenue dropped 3 percent to $1.34 billion from $1.38 billion in the same period a year ago.

Unisys reported a second quarter 2008 net loss of $14 million or $0.04 per share.

"We were disappointed however at the bottom line," McGrath said in a call with analysts at the time. "Over the past two plus years we've been making steady quarter-by-quarter progress in our profitability through our repositioning actions. That year-over-year profit progress slowed in the second quarter we saw an impact on our revenue and margins as some clients cut back on IT expenditures in an uncertain economic environment."

In a previous life Unisys was one of the world's biggest mainframe computer makers. In January, the troubled company invoked the ire of MMI Investments, a hedge fund controlled by Millbrook Capital Management. MMI owns roughly 9.9 percent of the company's shares, making it the third-largest shareholder.

Clay Lifflander, president of Millbrook Capital Management, and MMI Investments sent the Unisys board of directors a letter recommending that it sell or spin-off its U.S. government computer services business and advised the company to hire an investment bank to review its business strategy. Subsequently, Unisys retained Goldman, Sachs and Co.

In May, Unisys added Lifflander to its board of directors, in addition to Charles McQuade, the retired chairman and CEO of Securities Industry Automation.