Two years after resigning as CEO of Amdocs (NYSE:DOX), Avi Naor is resigning as vice chairman and director. Amdocs' updated annual financial report states that Naor resigned last month from the company's board of directors. Amdocs did not state who would be appointed in his place.
Naor apparently left Amdocs to devote more time to the "Or Yarok" (Green Light) highway safety organization, which he founded and serves as chairman.
Naor, 55, was one of Amdocs's founders in 1982. After serving as senior vice president, he was appointed president and CEO in 1995, which he held until July 2002.
A party at interest in Amdocs is Toes Corporation, an off-shore company founded in September 1997, reportedly as a tax shelter. Toes Corporation, classified as a foundation, was established to benefit Amdocs employees, mostly software and IT experts. Amdocs has never disclosed who are the senior employees involved, but they reportedly include Naor, and former Amdocs chairman Boaz Dotan, another founder of the company.
Toes Corporation has sold many Amdocs shares on the market and in the company's public issues over the years, making quite a few company managers millionaires. A "Globes" study of sales by parties at interest in Amdocs found that Toes Corporation has sold $200 million worth of Amdocs shares since the company's IPO in mid-1998. About $8 million worth of shares have been sold in 2004 alone. Toes Corporation now owns 0.3% of Amdocs, worth $14 million at the current market price.
Amdocs's share has risen 13% since the beginning of September to $22.70, reflecting a market cap of $4.7 billion.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 23, 2004