475

John Riccitiello is stepping down as CEO and president of Unity (investors.unity.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml to c/games@lemmy.world

58 comments fedilink hide all child comments

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Unity (NYSE: U) (the “Company”), the world’s leading platform for creating and growing real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today announced that John Riccitiello will retire as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. James M. Whitehurst has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the Board. Roelof Botha, Lead Independent Director of the Unity Board, has been appointed Chairman. Mr. Riccitiello will continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 34 points 10 months ago

He did what he was hired to. Take the company public, turn the founders into billionaires and become the scapegoat when things go south.

[-] LanternEverywhere@kbin.social 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Unless there's something I'm not aware of (which is very possible), what you said doesn't make sense. The company was already publicly traded (so no IPO to pump up the numbers for), and none of the recent moves he made increased the stock price.

[-] foips@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

JR joined many years before it went public

[-] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Dude was specifically hired for the IPO, he was hired in 2014 and the IPO was in 2020. So what you said doesn’t make sense. And before you say how do you know he was hired for the IPO. It’s a pattern that you see all the time. Founders step down, hire a CEO with experience, new CEO packs the board and c-suite to make the company seem more legit (probably packs the board with people suggested by the IPO underwriter) and raise capital to pump the value and get the valuation mentioned in the news. And boom company goes public a couple of years later.

Also the founders sold a shit ton of shares when the stock was around the peak. And even with the low price of today the founders are probably still billionaires.