Struggling graphics hardware company Number Nine Visual Technology Corp lost its president and CEO, Andy Najda, on Tuesday. Najda, who co-founded Number Nine in 1982, cited personal reasons for the resignation. But Number Nine had a replacement ready and waiting, in the shape of Wallace Smith, previously CEO of fluid flow simulation software firm Exa Corp, based, like Number Nine, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Exa has had an acting CEO in place since the start of this year.
Smith immediately hired a chief financial officer, Timothy Burns, and a VP of human resources, Lawrence Murphy. At the same time, long term board member William Thalheimer was elected as chairman. Thalheimer said that Smith – whose primary experience is in sales and marketing – will be concentrating on both solidifying Number Nine’s core business and taking the company into new markets. Before Exa, Smith was president and CEO of Paragon Imaging Inc, and president and COO of wireless Ethernet company Windata Inc. He was also one of the founders and a senior VP of graphics supercomputer company Stellar Computer Inc, which merged with Ardent in 1989 to became Stardent, only to close its doors a year later.
Number Nine almost went out of business last year, before being rescued by Silicon Graphics Inc, which injected $9m in cash in May 1998, later converted into a 26% stake. SGI has been working with Number Nine on a flat panel solution pack that includes the monitor and Number Nine’s 32Mb Revolution IV-FP graphics card for both PCI and AGP systems.
Number Nine has suffered four years of straight losses. The company reported its fiscal 1998 figures at the beginning of April, and saw revenue plunge 65% down to $16.5m from $47.2m last year, and a net loss of $13.9m, compared to a $20.8m loss the previous year. It blamed intense competition for the loss, but said there were signs of an improvement in the fourth quarter, when sequential revenue rose 108% from the third quarter to $3.1m. Revenue for the quarter still saw a huge 79% drop down from same period last year, however. Last month the company secured another $15m in funding from BankBoston Business Credit. á
