Frank Perna retired Friday as chairman and chief executive of industrial design software maker MSC.Software Corp.
William Weyand, former chief of Structural Dynamics Research Corp., another industrial design software maker, was named as Perna’s replacement.
Weyand left Structural Dynamics after it was sold to Electronic Data Systems Corp. for almost $1 billion in 2001.
The company said Perna, who joined the company in 1998, had been talking to the board about leaving MSC since 2003.
Perna’s retirement comes two days after MSC said its shares will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because it would miss a deadline for filing its 2003 annual report.
The delay is a product of MSC’s ongoing review of its past financial accounting procedures. The company said its shares will be suspended March 11 and likely then will trade on the Pink Sheets.
Last summer MSC said a probe by its audit committee into software sales in Asia has been expanded to look at how the company accounts for all global sales.
The maker of industrial and engineering software plans to restate earnings results for the past three and a half years.
Two days ago MSC issued a press release saying that Perna would be hosting a conference call to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday. The company didn’t say whether Perna would be involved in the call.
“That is to be determined,” company spokesman Todd Evans said.
Analysts expect MSC to report sales of $274 million for 2004, according to Thomson Financial Network.
Last year ValueAct Partners LP offered to buy MSC for $275 million to take the company private. The software maker declined the offer.
ValueAct and MSC then struck a deal in which ValueAct agreed not to pursue acquiring the company while the accounting review is under way. Only after MSC is current in its financial filings can ValueAct make another offer for the company, according to the agreement.
Perna’s seven-year tenure at the company has been marked by its share of rough patches. In 2002, the company was forced to divest two companies it bought in 1999 as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
The divestiture came after the commission started looking at MSC’s 2001 buys of Torrance’s Universal Analytics Inc. and Costa Mesa’s Computerized Structural Analysis & Research Corp., both of which made a specialized computer product called Nastran, which is used in testing product designs.
Regulators said the deals stunted competition for Nastran. MSC said that a niche product such as Nastran is too narrow for antitrust laws to apply. Perna decided to fight the commission, which ended up taking its toll on the company.
In 2002, MSC reported a net loss of $2.4 million in the first quarter, due to higher legal fees. The software maker had claimed that a request by the commission for documents dating back to 1995 was too broad.
The commission dealt a scathing response saying MSC has demonstrated “a disturbing habit of reneging on promises” to disclose documents. The commission then sent investigators to MSC headquarters to remove materials.
Perna moved MSC from Los Angeles to Orange County in 2001. The company set up shop in Santa Ana’s South Coast Metro area.
