Nick Tidd has resigned as president of North American operations for networking equipment maker D-Link Systems Inc. in Fountain Valley.
Tidd’s exit was abrupt and might have stemmed from disagreements with senior executives of the company’s Taiwan parent D-Link Corp., observers said. D-Link Systems associate vice president Dan Kelley said Tidd’s exit was a mutual decision.
“It made sense for both sides to part ways and adjust ourselves to compete,” Kelley said.
D-Link Systems chief technology officer A.J. Wang was named to replace Tidd on an interim basis, as the company searches for a new president.
“We’re not going to put a timetable on it,” Kelley said. “We really want to make sure it’s the right fit.”
D-Link Systems makes networking gear for consumers and small businesses. Its flagship product is the Boxee Box, a TV set-top box that delivers shows, movies and other Internet content without using a PC.
The glossy black cube, which hit the market in October 2010, allows users to post reviews and share photos via Facebook and Twitter from their TVs. D-Link markets the Boxee Box with Oklahoma-based Boxee Inc., which provides software and co-markets the project.
Tidd arrived at D-Link from Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp. in 2009. He started as vice president of marketing for North America and vice president of sales for Pan-American operations, and was promoted to president in early 2010.
Tidd’s experience largely centered on business-to-business sales from his time at 3Com. Sales in that segment improved at D-Link under his leadership, but the consumer side of the business took a hit amid the recent downturn and was also weighed down as the market for basic routers and networking products grew saturated in the U.S.
Shift in Focus
That prompted management in Taiwan to shift the focus to serving more businesses, which brought higher margins. That was a departure from the company’s reputation for providing consumer networking products, namely PC routers, and later home surveillance equipment, streaming media devices and photoframes.
D-Link targets companies with 20 to 200 employees, “a sweet spot of the business,” Kelley said.
Mark Essayian, president of reseller KME Systems Inc. in Lake Forest, said D-Link made progress in the segment under Tidd.
“They were starting to make some in-roads in selling business products,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t disappear.”
KME sells about $125,000 worth of D-Link products annually, a small number compared to competitors such as Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. or Hewlett-Packard Co. in Palo Alto.
Essayian said he was persuaded to become a D-Link partner by Tidd and his sales team shortly after he joined the company.
Now, he’s taking a wait-and-see approach.
“You are always concerned when a president of the company and some of your channel and some of your engineering people leave the firm,” he said. “We don’t know what the direction is for the company. As an IT provider we’re always looking for a road map.”
D-Link’s Kelley said the company intends to improve communications among its large base of resellers, while boosting its in-house sales team.
“We know we need additional resources internally,” Kelley said.
Fountain Valley Work Force
D-Link employs about 220 in Fountain Valley. It’s parent company sees about $1 billion in annual revenue and doesn’t break down sales by region.
Irvine-based Virtual Graffiti, another D-Link reseller, reports business as usual since Tidd’s departure.
“It is hard to tell if the changes in the North American management team will affect our business with them,” said President Hillel Sackstein.
Virtual Graffiti has been a D-Link partner for three years and sells about $60,000 worth of its products annually, according to Sackstein.
D-Link’s products, which include network switches, routers, data storage and surveillance cameras, account for less than 1% of Virtual Graffiti’s offerings.
The recent executive shake-up at D-Link comes amid larger shifts playing out in the highly competitive networking industry. Market leader San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. continues to tweak its management team.
Hewlett-Packard last year hired Meg Whitman to head the company and upped incentives for resellers. Austin, Texas-based Dell Inc. is planning to enter the fray through its July acquisition of San Jose-based Force10 Networks Inc.
