Graham Weston, the Co-Founder of Rackspace Hosting Inc, has gone on the road to meet shareholders after the firm's stock price declined 19% when its CEO Lanham Napier announced his immediate retirement, Bloomberg reported.
Weston has taken over as the firm's interim CEO. Weston arrived in San Francisco at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc's technology and Internet conference to speak to around a dozen shareholders and assured them about the state of the company. The fall came the day after the company's CEO for eight years, Lanham Napier, said he would be retiring immediately.
San Antonio-based Rackspace was founded by Weston in 1998. Weston, who also remained as the company chairman, said that although the resignation surprised investors, he did not want to go the way of Microsoft Corp when it said Steve Ballmer was leaving but did not yet name his successor. It was only more than five months later that the biggest software maker in the world named Satya Nadella as its CEO, the report said.
In an interview, Weston told Bloomberg, "I saw what Ballmer had done and didn't think it was all that beneficial. They were in limbo. We wanted to show we have a leader who's energized and ready to plow ahead and excited to be there."
Rackspace is a server and software provider that takes care of the backend computing and storage needs of companies. Its fourth quarter revenue outperformed analysts' estimates. According to Weston, Napier's departure was voluntary and that he was not pressured by the board. He added that investors misunderstood their transition, the report said.
Rackspace said it had engaged the services of a search company to look for a long-term successor. However, Weston said they did not have a timeline for the search and that the board will examine candidates from both inside and outside the company, the report said.
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