<Nonetheless, the canary in the mine metaphor still applies because the CFO typically has less to gain—and more to lose—than other corporate executives by remaining with a biotech company whose prospects are sinking.>
so conversely, schiffman jumping affymetrix's ship and joining dndn meant affx was sinking and the previous two DNDN CFOs were wrong???
way, way too simplistic and imo, dangerous deductive thinking.
a cfo leaving a biotech could be a warning sign to shareholders as would be the case with any departure of a senior executive, but by no means is it necessarily suggestive or indicative of a problem.
imo, simonetti & burris's departure from dndn were for very different reasons, and neither had much to do with dndn's prospects (which looked pretty darn good after the panel vote)
and btw, burris's new employer's stock trbn has taken a 50% hair cut in the year she has been cfo there - which should be sufficient proof that a cfo's actions aren't always reliable business/stock indicators.
regards
