VeriSign names interim CEO (CNET)
By Natalie Weinstein, CNET Fri Jul 4, 3:02 AM ET
VeriSign, which runs the master database for the .com and .net domains, has replaced its CEO and president, who resigned suddenly earlier this week.
The company said Thursday that William Roper had resigned as of Monday. Roper, who had served as CEO for just over a year, has been replaced on an interim basis by VeriSign's founder and chairman, Jim Bidzos.
Bidzos, who founded the Mountain View, Calif.-based company in 1995, has served as either chairman or vice chairman of the board of directors since its start. He was also the company's first CEO.
Roper had been working on whittling VeriSign down to its core Internet-services businesses.
"VeriSign remains committed to our strategy of focusing the company on its core businesses while continuing the divestiture of all non-core operations, which will proceed as planned," Bidzos said in a statement. "We appreciate Bill's contributions in implementing this divestiture strategy, which the board and the company are fully committed to continuing."
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Roper's decision to leave right now was voluntary, so to speak. "I don't think it was fair to have him around while we were looking for a replacement, so he chose to leave," Bidzos told analysts on a conference call.