Long long overdue. The company can now get back on track to making good products instead of funnelling money into The Hut’s pockets. The board members finally woke up from their decade long nap.
Good riddance.
30 replies (most recent on top)
@5ag There's a whole, much more current, thread dedicated to this topic...
Sandy is clueless!!! The man was unceremoniously fired by the board and she sounds out this
WTF??
Dear Colleagues,
We are compiling a thank-you gift for Mark Barrenechea for his dedicated service to OpenText over thirteen years. We wanted to give OpenTexters an opportunity to contribute your memories, pictures, fun stories, or well wishes for Mark. If you wish to contribute, please hit respond to this email and send by next Friday, September 19th.
Mark who?
@2bp Well, if you want someone doing the hiring that doesn't care about merit; sure keep Shannon around.
If the board wanted to get the company back in shape they would get more executives like Shannon Bell. I’m surprised she has said with this sh-t show as long as she has.
@2aj Savinay doesn't understand the work or the workforce. He couldn't possible make meaningful contributions on who should be cut. He got himself into a niche that mark wanted to emphasis and that's all he thinks about. He has put zero effort into learning anything about the rest of the company.
@a4 Savinay was brought back by Mark B to turn every job into a metric. It's clear he's at OT this time to help cull the workforce.
Doubling down on massive mistakes is the Waterloo way. How long did it take to dump the Blackberry chump?
@OP He deserved it
Hope it will be less stress now
Why was he allowed to drive the company in to the ground for a decade? That is the remaining question. What is wrong with the OT board? He is by far the worse leader I've ever witnessed. Our engineering teams were never inspired by Mark and in fact we lost some of our top talent direclty attributed to Mark.
Hubris.
Study mark.
You have a lot to learn.
My recollection of Mr. Berenechea was that he was an egomaniacal je-k, who
Surrounded himself with yes men. The company is probably better off.
Thank God. Long overdue. We needed a CEO who will put in the effort to improve things instead of going for easiest options and waste time writing books and talking BS. Someone who will NOT surround themselves with YES bobble-heads but real people with different perspectives and ideas.
He-l ya, Ciao Mark!!
@OP
You are so right, long long overdue!
I could not believe the level of incompetence I witnessed daily by MB, the Board, ELT and SLT members who enabled him.
IMHO- they all need to go..and now!
A lot of terrific people that literally could have run circles around them were laid off, as they so arrogantly thought they had all the answers..It's one thing to buy a small technology tuck-in company..and integrate..However they were way out of their league buying and attempting to integrate such a large company. They kept blaming everything on MFI, when it was their legacy OT Leadership that called all the shots..and would not listen to anyone from MFI on any topic.
Their continued arrogance got them to where they are now..the consequences are long overdue. Thankfully the BOD could not ignore the elephant in the room any longer.
Got a taste of his own medicine lol about time
@ay That's right. If this was about enjoying his money and the rest of his life he would have left long ago. He had a death grip on the power and he lost.
Party time in Opentext . Good, now other ELTs should be fired too.
@av You are sooo wrong. His blood pressure is going through the roof right now. He is furious. How dare anyone fire him! This is not about the money he has. It is about the power he lost!
Life is short. When he is wealthy enough to do anything he wants or nothing at all, why would he be sorry? Wake up, there is life beyond work!
@ak He'll write a book about the experience.
@ak With an expected net worth of USD 46m he might not need another employment.
I hope he got a 2 week severance and had his access instantly closed.
Either way I bet he's throwing a tantrum right now.
I wonder if Mark’s gargantuan ego is just a little bit bruised.
I wonder how he likes being let go, except he got a tiny bit more severance than what he offered.
He is unemployable.
The angels are singing.
I wonder if they shut off his computer access before he could say goodbye.
Now OT might actually. have a chance.
Good news is - "laying off" Mark is more than 5%! Everyone else should be safe.
He wasn't fired, he was "harmonized" for "improved efficiency"
@a4 Two years too late, but it’s a start. Agree that Savinay will be collateral damage once new CEO is on board.
Selling and dumping non-core assets will be key. Streamline the portfolio and get back to what made OT successful in the first place. Then innovate on those products only - e.g. AI in Content management etc,
My guess is that Muhi will now leave as well. He was staying out of respect for Mark.
Hopefully the new CEO will see through Savinay’s “used car salesman” speak and replace him with a real cloud first engineering leader.
Michael and Shannon are both strong and well positioned. Paul D is a horrible leader and should be fired. His PS team is a trash fire.
Woah this has been a long time coming - Thankyou to the board of directors!