Extreme CEO to step down this year

After 10 years as CEO of Extreme Networks, Gordon Stitt will retire within in the next few months, the Ethernet equipment vendor announced today.

Stitt will help the company search for a replacement and become chairman of Extreme's board of directors once the new CEO takes over.

"[Stitt] guided [Extreme] from inception, through incredible growth, built a tremendous base of world-class customers and led with grace through some great challenges," Extreme's current chairman Mike West said in a statement released by the company today. West will remain a director when Stitt becomes chairman.

The news comes less than three weeks after Extreme reported its second disappointing quarter in a row, attributing its troubles in part to an insufficient number of sales personnel. The company is still searching for a vice president of North American sales, which it hopes to name before its next earnings report.

Extreme's $85.5 million in fiscal third-quarter revenue, down 8%, topped the reduced range the company projected a few weeks earlier. Its $33.9 million in U.S. revenue, though up 6% sequentially, was lower than it had anticipated. And revenue from Japan was especially disappointing, the company said.

Those results depicted what UBS Investment analyst Long Jiang called the company's "ongoing challenge to stage a turnaround."

Though Extreme recently began shipping its new Black Diamond 12K carrier Ethernet platform, it will take time for it to generate revenue, Jiang said. But the enterprise version, due this quarter, "should be a more tangible catalyst for revenue growth."

An Extreme spokesperson told Telephony Stitt's departure is not related to the company's recent performance problems, adding that the CEO and co-founder celebrated his 50th birthday last week.