by CIO Staff

Big Changes at McAfee in Wake of Stock Options Scandal

News
Oct 11, 20062 mins
IT Strategy

A major, executive shake-up is under way at security software vendor McAfee, including the firing of the company’s president in the wake of a stock-options investigation.

McAfee announced Wednesday that it has terminated the employment of its president, Kevin Weiss. The company’s chief executive officer and chairman, George Samenuk, is retiring from those roles, and the board of directors has appointed Dale Fuller as interim CEO.

Fuller joined McAfee’s board in January and was previously CEO and president of development tools vendor Borland Software. Charles Robel becomes executive chairman. He joined McAfee’s board in June and was formerly chief operating officer at venture capital company Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

Samenuk leaves McAfee after almost six years. In a statement, he said that he’s retiring because it’s “in the best interests” of the company, its shareholders and its staff. “I regret that some of the stock option problems identified by the Special Committee occurred on my watch,” he added in the statement.

McAfee set up a special committee of independent directors to look into the company’s practices of stock-option granting. The committee was assisted by independent counsel and forensic accountants. Based on the committee’s findings, McAfee now expects to have to restate financial results over a 10-year period to record pretax non-cash charges of between US$100 million and $150 million for stock-based compensation.

The software vendor is one of many high-tech companies having to grapple with the stock-options issue. Others include Apple Computer, Broadcom, Sycamore Networks and Rambus.

McAfee is actively engaged in looking for a permanent CEO and will consider both internal and external candidates.

-China Martens, IDG News Service (Boston Bureau)

Related Links:

  • Novell Launches Internal Stock Options Probe

  • Apple: CEO Steve Jobs Knew of Backdating

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