Brocade Hires Silicon Valley insider as CEO

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Brocade (BRCD) ended its five-month search for a CEO, appointing industry veteran Lloyd Carney.

A 30-year tech veteran, Carney served most recently as the CEO of privately held virtualization specialist Xsigo, overseeing its sale to Oracle (ORCL) for an undisclosed fee last year. Carney was also the CEO of network-management specialist Micromuse when it was sold to IBM (IBM) for $865 million in 2005.

A Silicon Valley insider, Carney has also served as COO at Juniper Networks (JNPR) and as president of Nortel Networks during his career.

"After a thorough and robust search process, the board believes that Mr. Carney is the ideal leader to take Brocade to the next level," Chairman David House said in a statement. "Mr. Carney has a relentless passion for driving innovation and operational excellence. These characteristics, combined with his track record of execution including delivering growth and increasing shareholder value, make him an outstanding choice to lead Brocade into its next phase."

Carney succeeds Michael Klayko, who served as the company's CEO from 2005. Brocade announced Klayko's resignation in August, but he continued to serve as CEO during the search for his replacement.

Brocade did not give a reason for Klayko's departure, although there has been speculation that it may have been driven by the board's desire to facilitate the company's sale.

Shares of Brocade, which has been touted as a top buyout prospect for 2013, dipped 0.5% to $5.56 in extended trading on Monday.

"Carney's two previous companies were eventually acquired," wrote ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall, in a note released on Monday. "We would not be surprised if Brocade's board took this into consideration, but believe a strategic buyer will be difficult to attract given secular/competitive challenges in Brocade's core storage and Ethernet businesses."

-- Written by James Rogers in New York.

Follow @jamesjrogers

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