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Unity Announces Leadership Transition, Changing of CEO

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
unitybrand_dark_new.jpg

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.

The Board will initiate a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm, to identify a permanent CEO.

Working with Unity under John's leadership has been one of the highlights of my career. John joined the Unity Board in 2013 and stepped in to lead the Company in 2014, at a time when we faced significant challenges,” Mr. Botha said. “John has led Unity through incredible growth over the last nearly 10 years, helping us transition from a perpetual license to a subscription model, enabling developers to monetize, building other game services to serve our creator community, leading us through an IPO and positioning us as a pioneer in the developer community. Unity would not be where it is today without the impact of his contributions. I remain excited for the future of Unity.
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It’s been a privilege to lead Unity for nearly a decade and serve our employees, customers, developers and partners, all of whom have been instrumental to the Company’s growth,” Mr. Riccitiello said. “I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the Company’s future success.
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winjer

winjer

Gold Member
After the gigantic screw up he did, of course Riccitiello had to go.
At least, as a way to try to regain some credibility back to the company.

Maybe they should consider getting an AI to manage the company. It would be much cheaper, and it wouldn't be as incompetent.
 
Dacvak

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Wow. It's kind of wild to see a shitty CEO actually have some amount of consequences of their actions in the year of our Lord 2023.

Good for Unity. I know a lot of smaller devs who are too deep in projects right now to change engines, so I'm sure this will be welcomed news for them.
 
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MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
Yeah, this isn't a shocker by any means. But I'm not sure they're going to win back and developers that have already moved on.
 
March Climber

March Climber

Gold Member
FearlessBelgian said:
Sadly they are dead, trust is definitely lost with developers...
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The next step is the multi-layered rebrand. New dev tool company started up from seemingly 'out of nowhere' backed and funded by anonymous donors, owned by a new parent company name that you would only know is related to Unity if you did deep research.
 
rabbity-thing

rabbity-thing

Member
Griffon said:
Sacking the CEO is nice; but it's still the exact same board of directors. Nothing more than changing the front.
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Shits_McGiggles said:
Doesn't make a difference as long as investors continue to try to push for this shit.
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James Franco GIF


I hope I'm wrong, but I kinda agree with you guys. The move they pulled couldn't have existed in a vacuum. Devs would be wise to avoid this company in the future. The trust is gone.
 
Heimdall_Xtreme

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
Draugoth said:
unitybrand_dark_new.jpg

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.

The Board will initiate a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm, to identify a permanent CEO.
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Another Devil out.
 
draliko

draliko

Member
Seeing the reactions on gaf pretty much explain why you need a CEO to use as a Scape goat... you blame the finger pointing to the moon, the board is the same and they were fine with the monetization scheme, so in reality nothing changed... same as arguing with McDonald's employees if the bigmac price rise..
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
rofif said:
Why do these (and almost all) big companies need a CEO that earns 50mil a month?! That's so stupid. It's not his company. It's public traded and has board
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Because he is able to generate multiples of that. Most high level execs have always compensation package that consists of fixed + bonus based on results / stock price + preferential share buying option.

GAF and the pink place can shit on execs all they want but people like Unity CEO and Bobby Kottick generate incredible wealth for shareholders which is why they are where they are. And under the capitalist system stock price is all that matters for a publicly listed company, your JOB is to maximize profits, you can be sued in court as acting against the best interests of the company if you don’t do so.
 
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lyan

lyan

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Because he is able to generate multiples of that. Most high level execs have always compensation package that consists of fixed + bonus based on results / stock price + preferential share buying option.

GAF and the pink place can shit on execs all they want but people like Unity CEO and Bobby Kottick generate incredible wealth for shareholders which is why they are where they are. And under the capitalist system stock price is all that matters for a publicly listed company, your JOB is to maximize profits, you can be sued in court as acting against the best interests of the company if you don’t do so.
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Well in Unity's particular case the man generated an exponentially increased loss instead, which I tend to think is the real reason and the recent event was merely a nail in the coffin.
 
AV

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
The grave's already been dug. They can't fill it back in. Nobody in their right mind is going to use Unity for any future projects.
 
Haint

Haint

Member
Based on supposed insider information allegedly from disgruntled employees, the fee stuff wasn't Ricietello's idea or decision, it was the board and large institutional investors they represent. They seemingly correctly prophesied weeks ago Ricitello would be a fall guy.
 
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