Kertzman relinquishes role of Sybase CEO

Mitchell Kertzman stepped down as chief executive of Sybase last week, after completing a management transition that started seven months ago.

In February, president and chief operating officer John Chen was appointed co-chief executive with Kertzman. At that point, Kertzman made it clear this was a transitional phase and that he would eventually relinquish his position and stay on only as chairman.

Chen was brought on board from Pyramid by Kertzman to restructure the vendor and refocus the database and tools arm on three key areas - mobile computing, data warehousing and the internet.

As a part of the company's shift, Sybase unveiled the formation of another division last week, Mobile and Embedded Computing, built around Sybase's small footprint SQL Anywhere database.

The operation will be headed by vice president and general manager Terry Stepien. It will develop database technology for mobile and embedded markets.

Sybase claimed that it leads the market for small footprint data-bases used in mobile computing, with a 22 per cent market share.

In February, the storage vendor laid off 600 employees and took a $70 million restructuring charge after posting a loss of $55 million for 1997.

Its latest figures showed that Sybase reported a $400,000 profit for the quarter ended 30 June.