By Don Clark And Josh Beckerman
NetApp Inc. said Tom Georgens is stepping down as chairman and
chief executive, less than two weeks after the data-storage company
said it would lay off 500 workers and issued a disappointing
financial forecast.
George Kurian was promoted to chief executive, NetApp said,
although the company also intends to conduct a CEO search. Mr.
Kurian, a former vice president at Cisco Systems Inc., joined
NetApp in 2011 and has been NetApp's executive vice president of
product operations.
The company said Mike Nevens, who has been serving as lead
independent director, would become chairman.
NetApp said last month its profit for the latest quarter fell
32%. The company also gave a forecast for the current period that
badly missed Wall Street estimates.
The company sells data-storage hardware in competition with EMC
Corp. and others. It has been hurt by businesses shifting to
purchases of cloud-based storage instead of buying and operating
their own hardware. NetApp has also struggled to manage the impact
of a major rewrite of the operating system that runs on its storage
hardware.
Mr. Kurian, 48 years old, said he would work on improving the
efficiency of the company's operations rather than shift its
product-development plans. "The board believes that the strategy of
the company is right, but new leadership will accelerate the
opportunity," he said in an interview.
Mr. Georgens joined NetApp in 2005 and became CEO in 2009.
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com and Josh Beckerman at
josh.beckerman@wsj.com
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