CFLO's founder moves on:
CacheFlow chair resigns to form Internet start-up
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 13 (Reuters) - CacheFlow Inc. <CFLO.O>, which provides services to improve performance on Internet sites, on Monday said Michael Malcolm will step down as chairman to start an Internet-infrastructure company.
Malcolm, also CacheFlow's founder, holds U.S. and foreign patents in computer networking, file systems, and network caching.
Company spokeswoman Ann Candelario said the company has not made any announcement about naming Malcolm's replacement.
Shares of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based CacheFlow fell 12 percent, or $13-3/16, to $94-3/4, rebounding from early trading losses of about 16 percent on the Nasdaq. The company makes appliances that accelerate and manage information flow over the Internet through caching and storing popular objects closer to those requesting them.
Analysts noted that companies which enhance network performance were generally weaker in line with a decline in tech stocks and the benchmark Nasdaq exchange.
"It's not down that much relative to other companies in its sector," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Adam Holiber said. "It's not a concern that the founder left. He was certainly not involved in the daily operations of the company."
CacheFlow competitors Inktomi Corp. <INKT.O> and RealNetworks Inc. <RNWK.O> also were off. Inktomi shares lost about $5-1/16, or 10.4 percent, to $43-3/4, while RealNetworks fell $2-1/4 to $17-3/4, or about 12 percent.
Holiber has a buy recommendation of CacheFlow, but said continued weakness in the stock would prompt him to raise his recommendation to a strong buy.
CacheFlow, which went public earlier a year ago, has signed up customers include leading Internet service producers and companies such as American Online Inc. <AOL.N>, Global One,Sprint PCS Group <FON.N>, Hewlett Packard Co. <HWP.N>, Lucent Technologies Inc. <LU.N> and Xerox Corp. <XRX.N>.
"I am proud that together we developed an outstanding technology with which we were able to establish a whole new market category," Malcolm said. "We have a strong management team in place, and I know that the company will be in excellent hands as I move on to the next chapter in my career."
Prior to his post as chairman, Malcolm was a co-founder of Network Appliance Inc. <NTAP.O> and served as president and chief executive officer until 1994.
15:04 11-13-00 |
