James M. Whitehurst has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the Board.
The Board will initiate a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm, to identify a permanent CEO.
It seems as though Riccitiello didn't step down, but was pushed, leaving a gap. Riccitiello was CEO, Chairman and member of the board, so it was a big gap. Hence the interim appointment.
If Whitehurst is only in office for a short time, his credentials are far less important than those of the permanent appointment that is yet to be made.
I wonder why Whitehurst didn't want the job on a permanent basis. Any intelligence?
It seems that they already picked a new formal CEO, Matthew Bromberg. He used to be:
1. COO at Zynga, a mobile game developer/publisher, where he oversaw turnaround of the firm and ran global game studios.
2. SVP at EA running its global mobile gaming biz.
Overall, I really like his experience, even more relevant to Unity’s bread and butter (mobile games) vs. Whitehurst. So this appointment is definitely a positive to me, for now.
As for Whitehurst, he is returning to Silver Lake as a MD. So I guess his biggest interest at this moment is PE investing and helping portfolio companies grow.
Meanwhile, Whitehurst didn’t technically leave Unity but instead is appointed as executive chair on the company's board of directors, staying on to provide guidance, which may be because Silverlake is one of the largest shareholder of Unity.
Also, both Whitehurst and Bromberg have been involved with Private Equity a lot, Sr. Advisor at Silverlake and Blackstone respectively.
Similar background/investor mindset makes them highly likely to share the same vision and strategy on Unity, aka. bring focus back on core products, monetization, one-stop value prop (mentioned integrated, profitability in the news release - ik it might just be PR, but at least Silverlake is not exiting and Whitehurst stays on the board as exec chair - that should tell something about their alignment)
Btw, a few interesting comments I found in Reddit/Unity forums:
1. “(Zynga is known as) the uncrowned king of predatory pricing and addiction-architect on mobile (games).” - I know it sounds so evil lol, but from a biz perspective this is exactly what Unity needs right now - pricing and monetization!
2. “I like what Jim (Whitehurst) is taking Unity to….. it is awesome that he stays on and became the head of the board.”
3. “For the new CEO, The Zynga and EA Mobile background kind of looks concerning (people hate their monetization moves in recent years, but that’s what made both companies succeed!) at first glance.”
4. “Because that EA leadership style worked out so well with JR (John Riccitiello) (sarcasm in case u didn’t notice)” - this is the general view of bears on this the new appointment: they think EA background is BAD.
But here is the thing, Riccitiello’s tenure at EA was 2007-2013, where the ship almost sunk, while Bromberg worked at EA during 2012-2016, when stock went 5x!
Therefore, the two EA backgrounds here mean absolutely different stories, instead in contrast it better shows how much a bad job Riccitiello did and how Bromberg was good at turnaround (mobile side only ofc).
James M. Whitehurst has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the Board.
The Board will initiate a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm, to identify a permanent CEO.
It seems as though Riccitiello didn't step down, but was pushed, leaving a gap. Riccitiello was CEO, Chairman and member of the board, so it was a big gap. Hence the interim appointment.
If Whitehurst is only in office for a short time, his credentials are far less important than those of the permanent appointment that is yet to be made.
I wonder why Whitehurst didn't want the job on a permanent basis. Any intelligence?
Thanks for the comment!
It seems that they already picked a new formal CEO, Matthew Bromberg. He used to be:
1. COO at Zynga, a mobile game developer/publisher, where he oversaw turnaround of the firm and ran global game studios.
2. SVP at EA running its global mobile gaming biz.
Overall, I really like his experience, even more relevant to Unity’s bread and butter (mobile games) vs. Whitehurst. So this appointment is definitely a positive to me, for now.
As for Whitehurst, he is returning to Silver Lake as a MD. So I guess his biggest interest at this moment is PE investing and helping portfolio companies grow.
Meanwhile, Whitehurst didn’t technically leave Unity but instead is appointed as executive chair on the company's board of directors, staying on to provide guidance, which may be because Silverlake is one of the largest shareholder of Unity.
Also, both Whitehurst and Bromberg have been involved with Private Equity a lot, Sr. Advisor at Silverlake and Blackstone respectively.
Similar background/investor mindset makes them highly likely to share the same vision and strategy on Unity, aka. bring focus back on core products, monetization, one-stop value prop (mentioned integrated, profitability in the news release - ik it might just be PR, but at least Silverlake is not exiting and Whitehurst stays on the board as exec chair - that should tell something about their alignment)
Btw, a few interesting comments I found in Reddit/Unity forums:
1. “(Zynga is known as) the uncrowned king of predatory pricing and addiction-architect on mobile (games).” - I know it sounds so evil lol, but from a biz perspective this is exactly what Unity needs right now - pricing and monetization!
2. “I like what Jim (Whitehurst) is taking Unity to….. it is awesome that he stays on and became the head of the board.”
3. “For the new CEO, The Zynga and EA Mobile background kind of looks concerning (people hate their monetization moves in recent years, but that’s what made both companies succeed!) at first glance.”
4. “Because that EA leadership style worked out so well with JR (John Riccitiello) (sarcasm in case u didn’t notice)” - this is the general view of bears on this the new appointment: they think EA background is BAD.
But here is the thing, Riccitiello’s tenure at EA was 2007-2013, where the ship almost sunk, while Bromberg worked at EA during 2012-2016, when stock went 5x!
Therefore, the two EA backgrounds here mean absolutely different stories, instead in contrast it better shows how much a bad job Riccitiello did and how Bromberg was good at turnaround (mobile side only ofc).