ME gets the first interview with Glu's interim president and CEO Bill Miller.
About an hour ago, Glu announced that it was appointing the co-chairman of its board of directors, Bill Miller, as its new interim president and CEO. He replaces Greg Ballard, who announced his plans to step down earlier this year.
About half an hour ago, ME talked to Miller and SVP and CFO Eric Ludwig, to find out more about the new appointment, the ongoing search for a permanent boss, and how all this affects the company's plans for 2010.
In fact, plans for 2010 are the main reason for the appointment.
"The need to start planning for 2010 is upon us, and it seemed to us on the board that it was important to put somebody in place who could drive the company through that 2010 planning process and carry it into 2010 if necessary," says Miller.
Does this mean Glu has struggled to find a suitable replacement for Ballard, though? Miller says the board's original intention was to have a permanent successor in place by 1st January.
"That is still possible, but it's certainly possible that it won't happen by then as well," he says. "The search has been going well, but slower than we expected for a variety of reasons."
Those include the fact that the search process kicked off in midsummer - not traditionally a fertile period for headhunting - but it also seems the initial batch of candidates identified by Glu did not lead to a speedy hire after that.
"In September and October we interviewed a lot of people who met our general qualifications, then focused down onto a much smaller number," says Miller.
"However, the principal candidates weren't able to close, so we decided to reset, take a deep breath and go back at it with a somewhat broader group of people again. That's what we're doing now. We feel good about the outcome, and we are determined to keep working at it."
It's an interesting time for a company like Glu to be hiring a new leader, given the drastic changes that the mobile games industry has experienced since Apple launched its App Store last year, and the separate rise of social gaming.
"There is an amazingly dynamic and fluid market situation," says Miller.
"The qualifications you would have been looking for a couple of years ago are quite different to what you're looking for now. It creates a great opportunity: the winners in this market are not yet determined, and Glu is one of the companies playing in that space."
While the search for a permanent boss goes on, Miller says he is focusing on three goals in the short-term.
The first is to continue the company's upward financial momentum, and build on its share of the iPhone market. "We were virtually nowhere six to nine months ago, but now we are an important factor," he says.
Second, there is the planning process for 2010, which Miller says he will be "working intensely over the next several weeks to get that in place".
It remains to be seen whether Glu is hampered next year by the fact that this strategic planning is having to take place so intensely in the final month of 2009, though.
Finally, Miller says he is focused on continuing to improve the execution of Glu's core business of making and distributing games on iPhone and other mobile platforms.
Including Android. Mischievously, ME wonders what Glu has to say about Google's smartphone platform, which has been the subject of debate among developers and publishers in recent times - notably Gameloft.
"We will be consistent with all of our prior statements on Android," says Ludwig.
"We were there from the beginning and we continue to be there. As that platform starts to show real promise on the financial side, we will be able to shift resources of it when it is advantageous to do so. We have always been supportive of it, and that is continuing."
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