David Nagel, president, CEO and director of mobile operating system developer PalmSource , is vacating his role at the company, officials said Monday.
Taking his place is the Sunnyvale, Calif., company’s top salesman, Patrick McVeigh, senior vice president of worldwide licensing, who the board of directors nominated as interim CEO.
Nagel will remain with the company through July on an advisory basis.
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David Nagel Source: PalmSource |
“I want to thank Dave for playing an instrumental role in helping position PalmSource to be a major player in the worldwide mobile software market,” Jean-Louis Gassee, chairman of the PalmSource board of directors, said. “We appreciate that Dave is staying on to ensure a smooth transition and wish him the best in his future ventures.”
Maureen O’Connell, a PalmSource spokeswoman, would not comment on the executive move, saying only that Nagel stepped down and the board of directors has initiated a search for his replacement.
PalmSource is currently third worldwide in the number of PDAs and Canadian-based Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry. According to a recent report by research firm Gartner, the Palm OS had a 20 percent market share in worldwide PDA shipments, down from 41 percent at the same time last year.
Nagel has been trying to reposition himself in the Linux market. In December 2004, PalmSource announced it would acquire China MobileSoft Limited and its technology to create a Linux version of the Palm OS.
McVeigh joined PalmSource three months ago, leaving behind his CEO role at Omnisky Corp.