Micromuse CEO steps down to start new year at Motorola

Chairman and CEO Greg Brown announced today that the last day of this year will be his last day at the helm of Micromuse, a company he helped build into a market leader in service assurance and fault management over the past four years. Brown will start the following day as president and CEO of Motorola’s Communications, Government and Industrial Solutions sector (CGIS.)

Mike Luetkemeyer, senior vice president and chief financial officer will take over as interim CEO and is being considered as a permanent replacement. Brown will retain his seat on Micromuse’s board of directors and threw his support behind Luetkemeyer during a press conference held today.

“Mike has sheperded us through an extremely challenging year in operational expense reduction, and without a doubt has the professional maturity and experience to step up to the helm here at Micromuse,” Brown said.

Both executives attempted to reassure investors by announcing that the company expects to meet or beat revenue and earnings estimates for the quarter ending December 31.

“I wanted to leave on a high note and make sure Micromuse was in solid shape,” Brown said. “This is a good time because the management team is rock solid and the management infrastructure underneath that is rock solid,” Brown said.

Brown added that Micromuse still has about $185 million in cash, even after the recent acquisition of Riverstone, and has no outstanding debt.

Responding to investor concern about recent management defections including Chief Operating Officer Katrinka McCallum, Luetkemeyer said, “I am very comfortable with the senior team and the support they have offered to me and the company.”

Luetkemeyer doesn’t foresee any immediate change in the running of Micromuse. “Greg and I ... have a shared vision of the business, what our strengths are and what our strategic initiatives should be,” he said. “I don’t expect to change any of that; we have developed this together.”

Before coming to Micromuse as CFO in October 2001, Luektemeyer, 53, spent 10 years at General Electric and served as chief financial officer at Aprisma Management Technologies, Electronic Retailing Systems and Rawlings Sporting Goods.

Brown notified Micromuse's board of directors earlier this week of his decision to leave and called it the most difficult of his professional career. “I will always have a fierce pride of ‘Muse, of Netcool and of this team,” he said.

His new career at Motorola puts him in charge of a sector with approximately $4 billion in revenue and 15,000 employees that make two-way public radio systems and solutions for emergency communications.

“It’s a very different business altogether than what Micromuse does,” Brown said. “Aside from being president and CEO for that sector, I will be leading the charge on Homeland Security and ... that’s a helluva an opportunity.”