Filling a position that's been vacant since Steve McCanne announced his departure back in February, computer networking company Riverbed Technology (RVBD.DL) announced Tuesday that it has decided to promote 10-year company veteran David Wu as chief technology officer.
When Riverbed announced the departure of McCanne -- not only the CTO, but also a company co-founder -- two months ago, that news plus the revelation of weak earnings helped to spark a one-day, 19% sell-off in the stock. Now, the company's hoping to help repair the damage by promoting an executive it says "was involved in the initial architecture of the award-winning Steelhead® wide area network (WAN) optimization appliance." (So almost the same thing as a co-founder.)
In a statement announcing the promotion,CEO Jerry Kennelly praised Wu for helping to grow Riverbed "from one product line to many," and promised that "as CTO, David will focus on technology innovation that will address the challenges of the new generation of IT."
For their part, investors reacted positively to news that someone's back in charge of developing innovative products at the company. Riverbed shares rose 1.1% in Tuesday trading to close at $14.30.
