Sources inform “Globes” that XACCT Technologies CFO Rick Van Hoesen and VP US sales Ted Mierzwa have resigned.
The reason for the resignations is uncertain. Industry sources claim it was probably over disagreements with CEO Eric Gries about the company's future direction. Other sources believe Mierzwa's resignation was prompted by XACCT's planned merger with Narus. Narus has better penetration of the US market than XACCT, although XACCT won a major contract with US telecom giant Sprint (NYSE:PCS) six months ago.
The sources added that XACCT has cancelled three of its four products: a provisioning engine that allows an enterprise to update its servers by remote control; a rating product; and, as "Globes" reported last week, its probing system. As a result, XACCT has reverted to its core product, a mediation solution.
Billing industry sources also claim that despite XACCT's advanced merger negotiations with Narus, it has not rejected the possibility of being acquired by another company. This may be one of the measures XACCT Executive VP technology and co-founder Eran Wagner was hinting at in a ''Globes'' interview last week. He told ''Globes'', "We are currently negotiating with severalentities in the market, in orderto weigh possible mergers and acquisitions to accelerate the company’s growth. The mediation market is undergoing consolidation, but we're not considering a merger with Narus."
Commenting on the resignations, Wagner said, "We have a strong management team at the senior and middle management levels, and also a reserve of people with managerial skills. XACCT is not planning any changes in senior management." He added that James Culbreth was SVP of field operations for the Americas.
Commenting on the cancellation of the probes product, Wagner said XACCT had no intention of giving up its packetsight technology.
No response was available from the company by web-postingabout the other matters discussed in this report .
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 23, 2002