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Michael Tiemann, a Red Hat executive with close to two decades of open-source business experience under his belt, has come to the defense of the company's new chief executive.

Red Hat said last week that Jim Whitehurst, 40, will take over as Red Hat CEO and president on January 1, replacing Matthew Szulik, who's stepping down, though remaining chairman, because of family medical issues. Whitehurst worked at Delta Airlines from 2002 to 2007, rising to the position of chief operating officer.

Tiemann, who's Red Hat's vice president of open-source affairs and who helps to run the … Read more

The man who led Linux seller Red Hat from a newly public but largely unproven open-source company to a force to be reckoned with is giving his office to an executive largely unknown in the software industry.

In a surprise move, Red Hat said Thursday that Matthew Szulik is as president and chief executive on January 1, to be replaced by James Whitehurst, 40, Delta Air Lines' former chief operating officer.

Szulik, who took over as CEO from Bob Young in 1999 just a few months after its initial public offering, said he'… Read more

I don't know how many times I've read a post or an article by some small-minded, self-important journalist advising a public company's board of directors on how to "fix" the company. The most common advice is "sell the company," "fire the CEO," or better still, "fire all the executives."

Even if a company is screwing up, how is a journalist--whose entire management experience consists of looking at his watch to be sure he files a story by 3 p.m.--qualified to dole out management advice? Is mastery of a keyboard sufficient experience to know how to run a company?… Read more

On March 21, 1983, AMD went public. Adjusted for splits, the stock closed at $9.00 that day. Today, shares of AMD closed at $7.95. That means if you invested $10,000.00 in AMD's IPO, today you'd have $8,833.33. Adjusted for 25 years of inflation, that would be about a buck and a half.

Just to calibrate that, the same investment in Intel would have gotten you about a half a million dollars, Texas Instruments about $150,000, both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 about $100,000; even National Semiconductor and LSI beat AMD, although not by much.

Of course, some investors have figured out that you can make a fortune playing the AMD roller coaster. Except for the tech bubble and a brief spike two years ago, the stock has traded in a relatively narrow range. Seems like a nerve-wracking way to invest, but I know people who swear by it.… Read more

How many of us have driven home in anger, after a frustrating day at work, and declared to our spouse or the nearest person who will listen, "I can do that incompetent jerk's job way better"? The incompetent jerk is, of course, the boss.

At that point you have three options:

Option 1: Realize that you're full of hot air and do nothing. Option 2: Quit and go to work for somebody else. Option 3: Try to get your boss' job.

This post will give you three tips for accomplishing Option 3. Just to be clear, I don't mean getting your boss fired and you getting promoted in his or her place; I mean getting a promotion to that job level, either at your company or elsewhere.

I've done it lots of times. Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn't. Six years ago, I was so frustrated with my CEO that I responded to a call from an executive recruiter. Before long, I was CEO of an optical networking company. This was the opportunity I was looking for, a chance to see if I really was better at my boss' job than he was.

Seven months later, my company went bankrupt, a victim of the dot-com bust. True story.… Read more

Did you know that the president has a Corporate Fraud Task Force? That's right, he does. It's led by the deputy attorney general, whoever that is.

Anyway, this task force has apparently been very busy. Over a five-year period since its inception, the task force claims 1,236 corporate fraud convictions, including 214 CEOs and presidents, 53 CFOs, 23 corporate counsels, and 129 vice presidents.

That's a lot of fraud. Who knew there were so many dysfunctional executives in this great nation? The dark side of greed and capitalism must be pretty attractive, huh?

I also wonder … Read more

Following weeks of rumors that his ousting was on the way, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons announced his resignation effective January 1. On Monday, the media giant's board of directors announced that it has elected Jeffrey Bewkes, currently the company's president and chief operating officer, to Parsons' post.

"Dick Parsons has done an outstanding job during his tenure as chief executive officer," said Robert C. Clark, the board's chairman of the nominating and governance committee. "The board is grateful for Dick's exceptional leadership in turning this company around and putting it on a … Read more

Let's face it, high-tech is not known for its stellar marketing.

Sure, there's Dennis Carter's Intel Inside branding campaign, Steve Jobs' iMac, iPod, iPhone, iWhatever, and Michael Dell's direct-marketing concept. Aside from the obvious characters, even folks in the business--like me--have a hard time naming great high-tech marketers.

That's because much of high-tech marketing happens behind the scenes. Like Broadcom somehow managing to nail almost every market it enters, Google turning a great search engine into virtually limitless ad revenue, or Intel defining a next-generation microprocessor four years in advance of its launch.

That's a whole lot different from coming up with an ad campaign to sell beer or batteries.

You see, high-tech marketing is so interwoven with the technology that it's often unclear where the technology ends and the marketing begins. As we discussed in a prior post, marketing's job is to turn technology into successful products. But that statement doesn't imply or require that the transition from technology to product is either distinct or simple. Therein lies the rub.… Read more

Just when you think you've seen it all and covered this stuff to death, another (alleged) greedy sociopath comes along with even more creative ways of defrauding investors.

David Brooks, former CEO of body-armor manufacturer DHB Industries, has been indicted by the feds on a laundry list of charges that include conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.

The company's former COO, Sandra Hatfield, and CFO, Dawn Schlegel, were also indicted on similar charges.

Brooks and his cronies allegedly (it's always allegedly) used false accounting entries to inflate profit margins, filed misleading SEC reports, pumped up the company's stock ten-fold, and cashed out to the tune of $200 million.

The scandal also includes millions in unreported bonus payments and Brooks' use of company funds for all the usual personal excesses: luxury cars, vacations, jewelry, lavish parties, and to fund other family-owned businesses. But there are excesses I've never seen before: cosmetic surgery and the purchase of an armored vehicle for the family's use.

I've got to ask, what exactly does a family need an armored vehicle for?… Read more