HH Haight has resigned as OnMobile Global chairman and board director with effect from August 20, 2014, the company has informed BSE.
Haight mentions that this resignation is due to his retirement from a management role with certain investors in the company. Note that Haight is the founder and CEO of Argo Capital that owns 74.7% of the voting share capital in OnMobile Global’s largest shareholder Onmobile Systems. Also note that Onmobile Systems president and CEO Francois Charles Sirois had been appointed as an additional director to OnMobile board in June this year.
Haight had replaced OnMobile co-founder Arvind Rao as OnMobile board chairman in December 2011. Before that, he was a non-executive director on OnMobile’s board since 2006. Prior to founding Argo Capital, he was the founder and managing director of the private equity investment firm Advent International Corp.
Changes in OnMobile Management
Haight’s resignation comes at a time when OnMobile is witnessing significant changes in its management:
– OnMobile co-founder Mouli Raman had stepped down as the managing director and CEO in May this year. He had also resigned from OnMobile board a month later.
– Rajiv Pancholy was appointed as the CEO of OnMobile Global in May this year and given additional charge of managing director in June this year.
– OnMobile CFO Rajesh Kunnath had resigned in February. Kunnath left to pursue another opportunity, and as per his LinkedIn profile he has returned to Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd.
– Rentala Chandrashekhar, an Independent director on board at Onmobile, had resigned in April this year. Barry White had also resigned as OnMobile Global director earlier this month. OnMobile also appointed Nancy Cruickshank and Bruno Ducharme as non-executive Additional Directors in July this year.
– David Fondots, VP and Head of North America operations, had quit the company in March this year. He was replaced by Jacks Sterenfeld in May this year.
– Sumit Sardana, Senior Director and Head Account Management for Europe had resigned from the company in February.
– MV Rajesh, VP, Media had also submitted his resignation earlier this year.
Other developments at OnMobile
– OnMobile wrote down Rs 68 crore from Telisma acquisition in May this year, since the market outlook for the core products in its target markets had apparently deteriorated.
– OnMobile had completed Voxmobili sale to Synchronoss for $26 million in July this year. It also settled an intellectual property violation case filed by Synchronoss, against Voxmobili, Onmobile Global and Onmobile USA LLC, as per which Synchronoss received $3 million from OnMobile.
– OnMobile Global reported a loss of Rs 12.1 crore in Q1-FY15 due to increased content costs in Europe. It had posted a loss of Rs 124.3 crore in the preceding quarter due to Telisma writedown and Synchronoss settlement.
Updates: Added Nancy Cruickshank and Bruno Ducharme’s appointments
