History 2001: Iomega CEO Bruce Albertson Proves Removable

Decidedly, Iomega’s most recent CEOs are not built to last.

The previous titleholder, Jodie Glore, managed to remain in place only 10 months.

The most recent, Bruce Albertson, 55, a former VP of General Electric appliances division, endured a whopping 17 months, beginning in January 2000. Officially, he was dismissed over “differences with the board relating to the longterm strategic direction of the company.”

Iomega board members Jonathan Huberman and Robert Berkowitz will manage Iomega during the search for a new CEO.

Even so, the company won’t wait that long before implementing a restructuring plan and the inevitable layoffs.

For a number of years, the real boss of Iomega has not been the CEO, but rather the COB, Dave Dunn, who makes and unmakes CEOs at whim.

Admittedly, in the pages of this very newsletter, we could not hide on multiple occasions our difficulty in understanding Albertson’s strategy, which appeared to consist of transforming Iomega into a specialist of removable storage products of all shapes and sizes, be they magnetic, optical or flash-based, shooting off in all directions (computer, audio, video), with a corporate policy that did not hesitate to compete directly with the firm’s own customers, as was the case with HipZip audio devices.

The Utah-based firm continues to hemorrhage money vs. products it resells (CD-R/RW drives in particular).

As for products the company manufactures itself, PocketZip was a disaster, while Jaz fell apart in the absence of any product evolution. Only the Zip drive, and more specifically Zip disks, have succeeded in turning a profit, even if the company’s (unforgivable) error has been the stubbornness with which it has held on to a proprietary technology, refusing vs. its own best interests to expand the market by authorizing any veritable second source.

Zip disks now hold up the company, although the market is currently eroding with the incursion of CD-R media and drives, not to mention the big bad French wolf that has recently begun offering pirate i.e. compatible, but unauthorized Zip disks.

Nor were we much impressed by the latest offering from the company, the Peerless removable HDD drive. Basically, Iomega is headed for a fall.

While waiting for new work, Albertson will be kept busy, since he was just named to the board of MDU Resources Group, a provider of energy, value-added resources products and services.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 161 on June 2001 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.

Note: Albertson is currently director of the board of Znergy, Inc., providing energy-efficient LED lighting products, controls, and energy management solutions.