Iomega Corp’s CEO Jodie Glorie has stepped down after just ten months in the job. Glorie cited personal reasons for leaving, saying that he wanted to take a vacation with his family. However, the suspicion must be that the Roy, Utah-based company’s poor financial performance and failure to keep pace with the latest developments in optical storage have also influenced his decision to go. His resignation will be effective from the end of the month. The chairman of Iomega’s board of directors, David Dunn, will serve as acting president and CEO until a suitable replacement is found.
Iomega cut 450 jobs in the second quarter and posted a loss of $19.8m. The company made its first move into the optical storage market last month with a re-writeable CD drive, ZipCD. However, the industry consensus was that the product offered too little, too late, compared to faster products from Memorex Products and Samsung Corp.
In a letter to the shareholders, David Dunn, said that he would work on moving the company back into profitability. He intends to do this by concentrating on Iomega core product – the Zip drive – and use revenues from Zip sales to develop new products. No one from Iomega was available to comment further on the reasons for Glorie’s departure.
