InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[rmarchma]

Rox re Campagna’s reelection. Thanks for your well thought-out and articulated post on this matter. I certainly do not consider you to be a management basher, but an honest and truthful appraiser of the situation at hand. I consider myself to be likewise, although there are many who think I wrongfully “bash” IDCC’s top leadership. You said:

....“I'm of the opinion that Harry can't stand anyone that won't be a lap dog in his private company, and he's trained his staff to be exactly that...and he'll take care of them from the compensation committee cash register. Hey....if I was home grown in that organization and Harry made sure I had plenty of options and RSUs along with a fat salary, I'd sit up and beg too. Those that question him or try to change things depart. Not healthy IMO.”

Gercenstein did try to change IDCC’s organizational environment created and perpetuated by Harry. Gercenstein tried to make the organization more professional, more communicative, more accountable for results, and more investment-friendly with clearly stated goals contained within a publicly communicated Business Plan to the investment community. He was going to hold the managers accountable for accomplishing the stated plan.

Also Gercenstein desired the role of a true CEO, who was responsible for the operating decisions at IDCC, rather than just being a figurehead and puppet. Gercenstein clashed with Harry over the organizational changes he was trying to make, and was quickly fired in less than one year of being hired. An excerpt from a previous post, with a comment in italics that I was responding to, as follows:

I have talked to Janet Point about Harry's role - he's not there on a day-to-day basis - my impression is that he is a good and active and responsible Chairman of the Board.

Harry does not have to be physically in KOP to call the shots. He can still make extensive use of private and conference telephone calls with IDCC executives. If you were to ask an ex-CEO of IDCC you would get a different story as to the extent of Harry's involvement in the daily affairs and all the important decisions of IDCC than what Janet might indicate. And all she really indicated to you was that Harry was not physically present at KOP on a daily basis, which is true.

I think Harry does pull the strings like a puppeteer to a certain extent. An ex-CEO has said that Harry has the tendency to "micro-manage" the organization and would sometimes call him ten times a day. He also said that "Howard was Harry's puppet", and that "the board of directors was virtually non-functioning, except for Clontz". An ex-CEO's assessment may be somewhat tainted and exaggerated, but might contain some degree of truth.

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=703066