StorageNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq: STOR) today announced it will eliminate about half its work force -- or 110 employees -- continuing the storage software-and-services company's plutonium-like decay (see StorageNetworks Lays Off 50%).
Also today, Peter Bell, StorageNetworks' tenacious president and CEO, publicly called it quits. According to a company statement, he has resigned "in order to pursue other personal and business interests." Bell, who will continue to serve as chairman, will be replaced as CEO by Paul Flanagan, previously the company's COO.
"After four years, I feel that it is time for me to step back from the day-to-day management of StorageNetworks," Bell said in a statement. "As co-founder of the company, this is a particularly difficult decision for me personally. However, having someone as qualified and as committed as Paul to take over as CEO and president certainly makes this decision easier."
Meanwhile, Scott Dussault, previously VP of finance at StorageNetworks, has been appointed as CFO to succeed Flanagan.
In the end, Bell failed to effectively convert StorageNetworks from a storage service provider (SSP), a segment that's all but dead now, into a storage software company. To be fair, the industry in the last two years has been damaged by a horrific IT spending drought -- not the best of conditions to try to reinvent a technology company (see StorageNetworks Cuts SSP Roots and StorageNetworks Softens Up).
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