Message board posters: You won't have Giorgio Anania to kick around any more.

Optical components vendor Bookham Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM; London: BHM) announced today that Anania is gone. He's vacating the CEO spot and giving up his board seat, effective immediately.

The decision was described as a mutual agreement between Anania and Bookham's board. Peter Bordui, Bookham's non-executive chairman, will be interim president and CEO.

Thus ends Anania's six-year quest to get Bookham back on its feet. Since being named CEO during the telecom downturn, he's overseen the acquisition of the Nortel Networks Ltd. components business and the migration of Bookham's test and assembly to Shenzhen, China. Those moves were intended to boost Bookham's market share and cut costs, respectively. (See Bookham Buys Nortel's Components Biz.)

But Bookham's losses have persisted, and its spiral of restructuring hasn't stopped. Worse, it's continued to struggle as the optical components business has begun showing signs of health, including the IPOs of Optium Corp. (Nasdaq: OPTM) in October and Opnext Inc. (Nasdaq: OPXT) today. (See Opnext IPO Has Lots of Bandwidth.)

Bookham's most recent earnings might have been the last straw. The company missed analyst estimates for its December quarter, undercut expectations with its revenue forecast, and announced yet another set of cutbacks. (See Bookham Readies More Cuts.)

Temporary CEO Bordui joined the Bookham family through the company's acquisition of New Focus in 2004. He's from the optical components industry, with a resumé that includes a stint at JDSU (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU).

Bookham stock was up 6 cents (2.4%) at $2.59 in early after-hours trading.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading