Posted February 9, 2007
By RICK SMITH
RALEIGH, N.C. – Marc Fleury, the outspoken founder of JBoss software who sold the company to Red Hat less than a year ago, has quit his new employer.
Fleury’s departure had been expected for weeks since he went on extended paternity leave and voice criticism of Red Hat management through the media.
"Marc Fleury has decided to leave Red Hat to pursue other personal interests, such as teaching, research in biology, music and his family," Red Hat said in a statement issued on Friday.
"I have done what I can to help Red Hat succeed," Fleury said in the statement. "People need to understand that open source is a tsunami that is transforming the software industry in its wake, and its inevitability is now well beyond challenge or the force of individual personality."
Fleury started JBoss in Atlanta and built the firm into a globally known provider of Java applications. Red Hat acquired JBoss in June of 2006 for $350 million.
Once JBoss became a division of Red Hat, Fleury ran it and reported to Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Matthew Szulik. He went on paternity leave in December after the birth of his fourth child.
"Marc has made positive contributions to open source software,” Szulik said in a statement. “We are grateful to have had the opportunity to be the beneficiaries of his contributions, those of the JBoss community and those of our outstanding employees who joined Red Hat from JBoss."
Media sources have speculated that Fleury made as much as $150 million from the sale of the company.
However, by November, Fleury was expressing discontent with Red Hat’s direction and the attention and resources it was devoting to JBoss efforts. He did appear with Red Hat executives in New York inn December when Red Hat stock shifted to the New York Stock exchange from the NASDAQ and Szulik rang the opening bell, according to eWeek.
The publication also quoted a source as saying Fleury’s departure would be good for him.
“I think it's a good move for Marc," eWeek reported the source as saying. "He wasn't happy anymore and was losing interest in the day-to-day stuff."
In January, Red Hat issued a statement that Fleury would return after rumors continued to build that he had decided to quit.
"Marc Fleury has had a new addition to his young family,” said Leigh Day, director of global corporate communications for Red Hat. “Since much time in the past few years has been focused on growing the JBoss business, he feels it's now time to take a paternity leave and spend time with his family. We look forward to Marc's return in a few months."
CNET reported recently that Fleury shared his complaints with other JBoss employees.
"I am increasingly experiencing diminishing returns on my emotional and professional investments at Red Hat," he wrote. "Working with all of you at JBoss has been a pleasure and probably the apex of my short career."
Fleury told eWeek in November that he was upset Red Hat chose to spend more money on sales, support and marketing than on research and development.
"I'll say that I went to Red Hat to get an investment in the JBoss R&D division to grow it quickly," Fleury said.
"That still really hasn't happened. That's a bit of a point of frustration for me personally. But that's going to happen because now we have to grow our stack and we have to grow it fast in the light of the competition at the Linux level," he added.
Fleury has long been known as one of the more outspoken executives in the software industry. He founded JBoss, which focuses on Java programming. He also once worked at Sun.
Red Hat’s acquisition of JBoss ignited a feud with software giant Oracle, a Red Hat partner. Oracle saw the JBoss deal as a threat to the server software space that it dominates, and Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison soon launched a Linux initiative targeting Red Hat’s subscription-based support services.
Copyright 2012 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
He’s Out: JBoss Marc Fleury Quits Red Hat
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Fleury’s departure had been expected for weeks since he went on extended paternity leave and voice criticism of Red Hat management through the media.
"Marc Fleury has decided to leave Red Hat to pursue other personal interests, such as teaching, research in biology, music and his family," Red Hat said in a statement issued on Friday.
"I have done what I can to help Red Hat succeed," Fleury said in the statement. "People need to understand that open source is a tsunami that is transforming the software industry in its wake, and its inevitability is now well beyond challenge or the force of individual personality."
Fleury started JBoss in Atlanta and built the firm into a globally known provider of Java applications. Red Hat acquired JBoss in June of 2006 for $350 million.
Once JBoss became a division of Red Hat, Fleury ran it and reported to Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Matthew Szulik. He went on paternity leave in December after the birth of his fourth child.
"Marc has made positive contributions to open source software,” Szulik said in a statement. “We are grateful to have had the opportunity to be the beneficiaries of his contributions, those of the JBoss community and those of our outstanding employees who joined Red Hat from JBoss."
Media sources have speculated that Fleury made as much as $150 million from the sale of the company.
However, by November, Fleury was expressing discontent with Red Hat’s direction and the attention and resources it was devoting to JBoss efforts. He did appear with Red Hat executives in New York inn December when Red Hat stock shifted to the New York Stock exchange from the NASDAQ and Szulik rang the opening bell, according to eWeek.
The publication also quoted a source as saying Fleury’s departure would be good for him.
“I think it's a good move for Marc," eWeek reported the source as saying. "He wasn't happy anymore and was losing interest in the day-to-day stuff."
In January, Red Hat issued a statement that Fleury would return after rumors continued to build that he had decided to quit.
"Marc Fleury has had a new addition to his young family,” said Leigh Day, director of global corporate communications for Red Hat. “Since much time in the past few years has been focused on growing the JBoss business, he feels it's now time to take a paternity leave and spend time with his family. We look forward to Marc's return in a few months."
CNET reported recently that Fleury shared his complaints with other JBoss employees.
"I am increasingly experiencing diminishing returns on my emotional and professional investments at Red Hat," he wrote. "Working with all of you at JBoss has been a pleasure and probably the apex of my short career."
Fleury told eWeek in November that he was upset Red Hat chose to spend more money on sales, support and marketing than on research and development.
"I'll say that I went to Red Hat to get an investment in the JBoss R&D division to grow it quickly," Fleury said.
"That still really hasn't happened. That's a bit of a point of frustration for me personally. But that's going to happen because now we have to grow our stack and we have to grow it fast in the light of the competition at the Linux level," he added.
Fleury has long been known as one of the more outspoken executives in the software industry. He founded JBoss, which focuses on Java programming. He also once worked at Sun.
Red Hat’s acquisition of JBoss ignited a feud with software giant Oracle, a Red Hat partner. Oracle saw the JBoss deal as a threat to the server software space that it dominates, and Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison soon launched a Linux initiative targeting Red Hat’s subscription-based support services.
Copyright 2012 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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