| |
April's key turnover statistics temporarily staunched the slowing trend in C-level turnover that first appeared in the last quarter of 06' and continued throughout the first quarter of 07'. April's key turnover totals came close to matching the totals registered in April 06' and far exceeded the totals registered in the previous month. Despite the increased level of turnover, Liberum still predicts that second quarter overall C-level turnover will remain below the record levels registered for the fourth quarter of 05' and the first three quarters of 2006.
CHANGE DETAILS
April's overall C-level turnover declined 2% from the 06' total for April and Board of Director Changes, which was very high for the month due to proxy season, declined 8% over the same month in April 06'. CEO turnover on the other hand, increased 2% for April 07' over the same month in 06' while CFO turnover jumped 18% over the 2006 total for April. When the monthly totals were compared with March 07' totals for all aforementioned categories showed large increases.
Liberum expects the overall level of management change to continue to remain high, yet show continuing signs of moderation as we move through the spring business season, particularly at the top levels of corporate management. To illustrate the growing significance of top management change, Liberum outlined below a breakdown of the latest changes for April 2007. We have also included a list of companies that experienced CEO changes during the month of April for which investors might wish to re-examine for investment possibilities. For detailed information behind the statistics or for comparison annual data or more information of CEO changes contact Liberum Research directly.
APRIL 2007 MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
C-LEVEL MANAGEMENT CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 2,580
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
• Banking - 284
• Drugs/Biotech - 230
• Energy - 170
TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS FOR NEW HIRES ONLY
GRAND TOTAL - 1,134 or 44% of grand total
• Drugs/Biotech - 130
• Banking - 109
• Business Services- 77
APRIL 2007 C-LEVEL TOTAL BREAKDOWNS BY STATUS
• 20% or 526 were internal moves
• 44% or 1,134 were new hires from outside the firm
• 1% or 13 left firms without clear explanation
• 22% or 575 were promoted within the firm
• 13% or 327 resigned or retired from the firm
• 0% or 5 were terminated
APRIL 2007 CEO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 233 TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
• Banking - 28
• Drugs/Biotech - 28
• Telecom - 16
TOP INDUSTRY OUTSIDE CEO HIRES ONLY
TOTAL - 54 OR 24% OF GRAND TOTAL
• Metals/Mining - 8
• Drugs/Biotech - 7
• Energy - 7
APRIL 2007 CEO LEVEL BREAKDOWNS BY STATUS
• 24% or 55 were internal moves
• 23% or 54 were new hires from outside the firm
• 1% or 3 left firms without clear explanation
• 26% or 60 were promoted within the firm
• 26% or 61 resigned or retired from the firm
• 0% or 0 was terminated
APRIL 2007 CFO CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 233 TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
• Drugs/Biotech - 25
• Banking - 19
• Semiconductors - 17
TOP INDUSTRY OUTSIDE CFO HIRES ONLY
TOTAL - 74 OR 32% OF GRAND TOTAL
• Metals/Mining - 8
• Energy - 7
• Drugs/Biotech - 6
APRIL 2007 BOARD OF DIRECTOR CHANGE STATISTICS
GRAND TOTAL - 823 TOP INDUSTRY SECTORS
• Banking - 120
• Drugs/Biotech - 68
• Energy - 61
TOP INDUSTRY OUTSIDE DIRECTOR HIRES ONLY
TOTAL - 425 OR 52% OF GRAND TOTAL
• Banking - 56
• Drugs/Biotech - 45
• Energy - 32
APRIL 2007 -- 13 COMPANIES WITH CEO CHANGES WORTH RE-EXAMINING
Here are 13 from April out of a total of 233 CEO related changes in April that have caught my eye. I'm looking for situations where I think a particularly strong or particularly weak choice has been made - given the apparent current state of the company - or where there is an interesting special situation.
4/2 Cryptologic CRYP (NASDAQ) $339 million
4/4 Merix Corporation MERX (NYSE) $160 million
4/9 Mosaid Technology MSD.TO (TORONTO)
4/9 Silicon Graphics SGIC (NASDAQ) $339 million
4/10 Emisphere Technologies EMIS (NASDAQ) $98 million
4/12 Vonage VG (NASDAQ) $488 million
4/12 Monster Worldwide MNST (NASDAQ) $5.46 billion
4/16 Foamex International Inc. FMXI.PK (TORONTO) $438 million
4/25 CBR Realty Finance CBF (NASDAQ) $407 million
4/25 Evergreen Energy EEE (NASDAQ)
4/26 Bristol Myers Squibb BMY (NYSE) $59.029 billion
4/27 AT&T T $241.3 billion
4/27 Koninklijke Ahol AHO (NYSE) $19.742 billion
Investors need to diligently monitor key management changes. Certain management changes could be viewed as a "special situation" that can have a direct impact on a company's performance and share price.
Possible reasons for monitoring management change include:
* A way to ascertain whether a company's strategic approach to its market and/or long-term plan remain viable;
* Whether a new hire/s indicate/s an immediate or impending change;
* Methods to help determine whether potential financial problems might be brewing that are not readily apparent;
* A technique to assess the qualifications of a new hire in relation to the position he/she was hired for.
Liberum attributes the continuing high level of management turnover to a variety of key factors:
• increasing competition both domestic and international;
• growing complexities of business and work;
• the need for executives to lead with greater innovation;
• increasing government regulations e.g., Sarbanes Oxley and other laws;
• growing shareholder activism;
• increased independence of many corporate boards.
All the above data was derived from Liberum Research's Management Change Database. No other database or service provides extensive management change data similar to Liberum. The database is fully search-able and is updated daily. Subscribers can search for management changes by using an individual category or combination of categories that include:
- title (e.g., director, CEO, CFO, EVP, SVP down to VP level)
- date or date range
- ticker
- company
- industry sector/s
- status (e.g., retired, resigned, joined, promoted, terminated, internal move)
- market cap or market cap range
- individual name.
Liberum recently added new features to our management change research services. Clients can now request a customized report on specified C-level changes (title/s, sector/s and/or market cap) by geographic breakdown (city, state or province). Liberum will also provide a specialized report on multiple management changes in companies over a specified time frame. We have added new hyperlinks to the database and our custom alerts. Each individual record in the Liberum Management Change Database is now separately linked to Wall Street Transcript interviews, Google , the specific individual's work history and to related SEC 8-K filings.
|
richard[.]twst.com 
