Ericsson acknowledged Monday that Douglas Gilstrap, who has been senior vice president and head of Group Function Strategy for the last five years, and a key player in Ericsson's M&A activities, is resigning. He'll be leaving the company in August, but Ericsson's interest in M&A likely will remain.
Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement that Gilstrap played a leading role in all M&A activities during his time with the company. After bingeing on buyouts of Telcordia, Conceptwave, Tandberg TV, Nortel assets and others, Ericsson grew quieter on the M&A front in the last two years -- though it did buy Microsoft's IPTV assets last year (See Ericsson Buys Microsoft's IPTV Unit.)
Now, with an active search for Gilstrap's replacement already in motion, Ericsson might be looking for a strategist and M&A driver to hunt down possible acquisitions and other endeavors in the SDN space to complement the OSS assets and expertise it gained with the Telcordia buy. (See What's Ericsson's Next M&A Move? and Ericsson Closes Telcordia Acquisition.)
— Dan O'Shea, Managing Editor, Light Reading
Want to learn more about SDN and the transport network? Check out the agenda for Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE), which will take place on June 17 and 18 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The event combines the educational power of interactive conference sessions devised and hosted by Heavy Reading's experienced industry analysts with multi-vendor interoperability and proof-of-concept networking and application showcases. For more on the event, the topics, and the stellar service provider speaker lineup, see Telecommunication Luminaries to Discuss the Hottest Industry Trends at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event in June.
True. And that kind of lead time suggests that he's retiring, or changing careers.