SeaChange Changes Chairman, Loses CTO
Still seeking the magic formula for renewed growth and profits, SeaChange shuffled the executive deck late last week, replacing its board chairman and announcing the resignation of its CTO.
SeaChange International Inc. (Nasdaq: SEAC) -- a multiscreen video and advertising tech software firm that has seen its revenues fall and losses widen as it struggles to shift from a mostly hardware-based company to a software-centric one -- announced Friday that veteran cable and telecom executive Steve Craddock has taken the place of Tom Olson as board chairman.
Craddock, an independent consultant who has been on the SeaChange board for three years, was previously SVP of technology for Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and a long-time VP at Bell Atlantic, the predecessor of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). (See SeaChange Still Battling the Flood and SeaChange Eyes Timeline for Success.)
Craddock's new role became effective July 15. Olson, a long-time SeaChange board member who took over as chairman in November 2011, remains on the board.
"I'm pleased to have Steve in the role of chairman," said SeaChange CEO Jay Samit in a prepared statement. "With his history in television operations, he'll provide guidance that will help us to deliver new opportunities for our customers."
In the other major C-level change, SeaChange simultaneously announced that Shiva Patibanda, the company's CTO and GM of In-Home products, has resigned. Patibanda, who joined SeaChange five years ago when it bought Vividlogic, was responsible for developing the company's Nucleus video gateway software, one of its major new IP video products that has been deployed by a number of cable providers. (See SeaChange Snags VividLogic for $12M.)
Curiously, SeaChange said it "does not intend to fill the CTO role in the near term." Instead, it said, Patibanda's responsibilities will "transition to other members" of the company's management team as it seeks to play a larger role in the rapidly growing OTT video space.
"Now that Nucleus is deployed commercially and on a trajectory for new markets, it's the right time for Shiva to turn his focus to family and other interests," Samit said in another prepared statement. "We have a strong management team dedicated to delivering on our exciting product roadmap and I'm confident in their ability to execute on our Nucleus design wins."
— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading
