SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Unity (NYSE: U) (the “Company”), the world’s leading platform for creating and growing real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today announced that John Riccitiello will retire as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. James M. Whitehurst has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the Board. Roelof Botha, Lead Independent Director of the Unity Board, has been appointed Chairman. Mr. Riccitiello will continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition.
Unless there’s something I’m not aware of (which is very possible), what you said doesn’t make sense. The company was already publicly traded (so no IPO to pump up the numbers for), and none of the recent moves he made increased the stock price.
JR joined many years before it went public
Dude was specifically hired for the IPO, he was hired in 2014 and the IPO was in 2020. So what you said doesn’t make sense. And before you say how do you know he was hired for the IPO. It’s a pattern that you see all the time. Founders step down, hire a CEO with experience, new CEO packs the board and c-suite to make the company seem more legit (probably packs the board with people suggested by the IPO underwriter) and raise capital to pump the value and get the valuation mentioned in the news. And boom company goes public a couple of years later.
Also the founders sold a shit ton of shares when the stock was around the peak. And even with the low price of today the founders are probably still billionaires.