Tech world sees changes in leadership

The past month has brought many leadership changes to the Tech world, with several companies announcing that their major players were stepping down or being fired.  Here’s a rundown in case you missed it:

Steve Jobs steps down as CEO of Apple

Apple’s founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs 

Facebook:
Facebook made headlines when Zuckerberg stepped down in early August.  No, not Mark, his sister Randi Zuckerberg.

Randi announced she was leaving her position as Facebook’s Director of Market Development in order to set up her own social media consultancy company, RtoZ Media.  It doesn’t seem that there will be much sibling rivalry though, since Randi has already stated that Facebook will remain a “central element” in her work.

Although this move has a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering why somebody would leave such a powerful position in one of the world’s most influential companies, we look forward to seeing what the not-so-known Zuckerberg has in store for the future.

Apple:
Founder and CEO Steve Jobs stepped down at the end of August, appointing Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook in his place.

In his resignation letter, Jobs stated, “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately that day has come.”

Although not explicitly stated, many attribute the retirement to Jobs’s poor health while battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

The news sparked a media frenzy but Jobs is not entirely through with Apple just yet and will still hold the role as its Chairman of the Board.

While Jobs has been credited with much of the inspiration and innovation that Apple has delivered, we’re optimistic that his predecessor is up to the daunting task of managing the industry giant.

TechCrunch:
Popular technology blog, TechCrunch, announced this week that its founder, Michael Arrington, would possibly be losing his job over what TechCrunch writer  MG Siegler terms “nonsensical political infighting and really poor communication.”

The problem stems from the fact that AOL, who has recently bought TechCrunch, feels that there would be a conflict of interest if Arrington were to continue editing TechCrunch while also starting up his new venture capital fund called Crunchfund.

The announcement of Arrington’s possible dismissal sent TechCrunch employees into online protest with blog posts and Tweets supporting their editor.

The story gets even more dramatic as Arrington is currently trying to buy back the blog that AOL paid $25 million for last year.

Although we don’t know what the final outcome will be, the story is definitely worth a mention on this list.

Yahoo!:
The drama continues with Yahoo! as their CEO, Carol Bartz, announced today that she has been fired from her position by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board.  While the news doesn’t come as a huge surprise, the fact that she was fired over the phone did add a bit of unexpected flair.

Bartz was initially appointed CEO in 2008 in an effort to bring Yahoo back to its glory days.  But its falling ad revenue and poor reputation were never fixed and recent months have faced slumping stock prices and unhappy executives and stockholders.

No replacement has been named yet, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation and what the new CEO’s plans are for Yahoo’s future.

 

*Photo taken from http://www.apple.com/uk/