Louisville-based Storage Technology chief Patrick J. Martin said Monday he expects to leave the company after his contract expires next year.
“I serve at the pleasure of the board of directors and shareholders, and right now there’s been no discussions about that going on,” Martin, 64, said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.
“However, rest assured, there will be management continuity,” he said. “The board is actively involved, and I’m involved with them in looking at succession.”
He wasn’t available for comment Tuesday.
A pair of analysts discounted the idea that the board could be forcing out Martin, who came to the company in 2000 after spending 23 years at Xerox Corp.
“Frankly, he has been great for StorageTek,” said Brian Freed, an analyst with Morgan Keegan.
When Martin took over, the company was awash in $600 million of debt, said Kaushik Roy, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group. The company has erased that debt and now has about $1 billion in cash.
“It is unlikely they are pushing him out because of bad performance,” Roy said.
StorageTek is struggling to compete in a rapidly changing market. The company makes tape drives and other backup software used to store data.
The market for tape library equipment has eroded as more advanced technologies such as backup-to-disk have appeared over the past few years.
StorageTek’s stock closed Tuesday at $27.83, down 75 cents from the previous day’s closing.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
