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Executive turnover for the first month of 2008 continues to remain high. The trend for the month follows the same turnover pattern Liberum registered for the last two months of 2007. While the numbers are not extraordinarily high, they illustrate a continuing level of \turnover within the top executive ranks of public companies. Liberum expects executive churn at the top to continue at a high level for the next number of months.
C-level, CEO and CFO turnover all individually registered increases for January as compared with the same period in 2007. The turnover increases for the month as compared with January 2007 were as follows: 6% for C-level totals, 12% for CEOs and 4% for CFOs. Even more significantly, January was characterized by a particularly large number of CEO turnovers for which Liberum recommends investors
re-examine for investment potential.
The primary forces behind the continuing high executive turnover include corporate performance and its relationship with executives, the rising complexities of business in general, growing domestic and international competition, increasing market instability, and the continuing sub-prime credit crisis.
Key January 2008 Management Changes
34 Companies with CEO Changes Worth Re-examining
According to Liberum's Management Change Database, a total of 265 CEO related changes occurred during January 2007. Here are 34 from the time period that caught my eye. I'm looking for situations where I think a particularly strong or weak choice has been made - given the apparent current state of the company - or where there is an interesting special situation...
1/2 Trex Company TWP (NYSE) $127 million
1/3 Noble Corporation NE (NYSE) $15.405 billion
1/3 Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NOVN (NASDAQ) $330 million
1/3 Spartech Corporation SEH (NASDAQ) $424 million
1/7 American Medical Systems Holdings, Inc. AMMD (NASDAQ) $1.085 billion
1/7 ArQule, Inc. APQL (NASDAQ) $220 million
1/7 Krispy Kreme Doughnuts KKD (NYSE) $208 million
1/7 NII Holdings NIHD (NASDAQ) $8.822 billion
1/7 Odyssey Marine Exploration OMEX (NASDAQ) $248 million
1/7 Starbucks Corporation SBUX (NASDAQ) $13.425 billion
1/7 Xillinx, Inc. XLNX (NASDAQ) $6.059 billion (check out Liberum blog)
1/8 Draxis Health Inc. USA DRAX (NASDAQ) $174 million
1/8 The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. (NYSE) $9.690 billion (check out Liberum blog)
1/9 Target Corporation TGT (NYSE) $41.476 billion
1/14 Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ) $201 million
1/16 Ambac Financial Group, Inc. ABK (NYSE) $1.317 billion
1/17 Acxiom Corporation ACXM (NASDAQ) $800 million
1/21 Blue Square Israel Ltd BSI (ADR NYSE) $574 million
1/21 Fiber Tower Corp. FTWR (NASDAQ) $240 million
1/22 Nabi Biopharmaceuticals NABI (NASDAQ) $224 million
1/22 Perceptron Inc. PRCP (NASDAQ) $76 million
1/23 Avocent Corporation AVCT (NASDAQ) $762 million
1/23 eBay Inc. EBAY (NASDAQ) $35.720 billion (check out Liberum blog)
1/24 Cache, Inc. CACH (NASDAQ) $157 million
1/25 Geron Corporation GERN (NASDAQ) $341 million
1/25 National Bancorp. VNBC (NASDAQ) $84 million
1/25 Wellcare Heath Plans, Inc. WCG (NYSE) $1.948 billion
1/28 Sears Holding Corporation SHLD (NASDAQ) $13.802 billion (check out Liberum blog)
1/28 Superior Offshore International DEEP (NASDAQ) $100 million
1/29 Medical Solution MSMT (OTC) $32 million
1/30 Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, ANX (AMEX) $36 million
1/30 Genelabs Technologies GNLB (NASDAQ) $61 million
1/30 Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. HOME (NASDAQ)$177 million
1/30 Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. MMC (NYSE) $14.471 billion
Below you will find a breakout of some of the key management change data categories Liberum follows. The breakdowns are for January 2008.
January 2008 Management Change Statistics
C-level Management Change Statistics
Grand Total - 2,382
Top Industry Sectors
Banking - 233
Drugs/Biotech -194
Energy- 157
Top Industry Sectors For New Hires
Grand Total - 1,223 or 51% of grand total
Banking - 118
Drugs/Biotech - 117
Energy - 81
January 2007 C-level Total Breakdowns by Status
11% or 253 were internal moves
51% or 1,233 were new hires from outside the firm
0% or 10 left firms without clear explanation
23% or 556 were promoted within the firm
14% or 338 resigned or retired from the firm
0% or 2 were terminated
January 2007 CEO Change Statistics
Grand Total - 260 Top Industry Sectors
Drugs/Biotech - 35
Energy - 20
Health Services - 19
Top Industry Outside CEO Hires Only
Total - 73 or 28% of Grand Total
Drugs/Biotech - 8
Metals/Mining- 8
Energy - 7
January 2007 CEO Level Breakdowns By Status
17% or 45 were internal moves
28% or 73 were new hires from outside the firm
1% or 2 left firm without clear explanation
27% or 70 were promoted within the firm
27% or 69 resigned or retired from the firm
0% or 1 was terminated
January 2007 CFO Change Statistics
Grand Total - 195 Top Industry Sectors
Metals/Mining - 16
Energy - 15
Drugs/Biotech - 13
Software - 13
Top Industry Outside CFO Hires Only
Total - 64 or 33% of Grand Total
Metals/Mining - 10
Energy - 5
Drugs/Biotech - 4
Software - 4
January 2007 Board of Director Change Statistics
Grand Total - 528 Top Industry Sectors
Real Estate - 54
Banking- 47
Energy - 45
Top Industry Outside Director Hires Only
Total - 337 or 64% of Grand Total
Real Estate - 50
Energy - 34
Food/Drink - 27
Investors need to diligently monitor key management changes. Certain management changes should be viewed as a "special situation" that can have a direct and major impact on a company's performance and share price.
New CEOs know more than the market about the company. Their decision to take the position contains information. Likewise the departing CEO. Likewise departing CFOs.
New CEOs will bring new skills and often-times a new direction. This is normally significant, and worth analyzing.
The next step is to get a reliable source of these investment leads - and that's why funds use Liberum (a division of The Wall Street Transcript).
About Liberum
The largest database of C-level executive change at public companies. Frequently quoted in the financial press, Liberum helps investors monitor this important, continuous stream of investment events. The data is also useful for investment bankers, private equity, executive search and consulting firms. The data can be used in numerous ways.
Daily customizable alerts, a searchable database, custom reports, xml feeds. Liberum clients get the data the way they can best exploit it. Get a short trial. And check out our management change blog.
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richard[.]twst.com 
