T195 Blog Entry #10
At the close of the day of business yesterday, the Chief Operating Officer and president of Electronic Arts resigned so he could go start a venture capital business (http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/07/technology/ea_resign/index.htm?cnn=yes). Riccitello, the COO, is teaming up with a veteran VC to create a VC that focuses on technology and entertainment. I am not exactly the most versed person on the business of hiring and firing CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and any other C + letter acronym you want to throw in there, but I am guessing this Riccitello guy must have an awesome MBA from a school like Kelley. I do not understand why you would want to leave a company that is very successful and has saw EA's stock hit a 52-week high 3 times since the start of April (grant it, that is about 4 possible business days the big board has been open). Riccitello has to be making a ton of money, but I guess just with any other profession, you can get tired of running the financing department of a video game corporation. But EA is not showing any downside in the near future with PS3 on the horizon. The staples will continue to be made (Madden, NCAA football and basketball, T Woods Golf, etc.) and I would think the company would continue to be viable with other games such as the new Bond game that just came out. But I guess you can't bank on your sports division to pull through for you in every fiscal year, thus the need to go out and maybe earn more money as a VC. Prior to EA, Riccitello served as the CEO of Sara Lee's worldwide bakery division. So really, this guy just knows how to manage people and crunch numbers. He really has no prior video games experience, but made sure Americans had an easy to make frozen pie ready for their thanksgiving dinners. Now that is something to chew on.