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Keith goes on his Todd as ICL cancels IPO (again)

CEO resigns

Keith Todd, chief executive of ICL has resigned, following the decision of parent company Fujitsu to pull the plug on plans to float the company.

It appears that Todd, who was closely involved with the IPO plans, felt his position was untenable.

Once upon a time, ICL was the UK's biggest computer company, then it became the UK's biggest computer services company, while now it is the UK's third biggest computer services company.

The firm has been threatening to float for years, but finances - described by Richard Holway, a leading UK software and computer services companies analyst, as "promises, promises, promises - loss, loss,loss" - have never been strong enough. Now conditions for technology IPOs are too poor to get away an IPO that was expected to value ICL at £5 billion.

Over the years plenty of ICL subsidiaries have been sold off, typically to management, and subsequently floated on the London Stock Exchange. Workplace Technologies, a big networking systems reseller, and Guardian IT, a disaster recovery/business continuity specialist are two examples of former ICL subs, which made this transition. However, ICL has never been able to pull off this making money trick for itself.

If you're interested in further details as to how and why the company went wrong, may we recommend Richard Holway's estimable site Holway.co.uk. You are supposed to register for the daily newsletter, but it is free. ®

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