WANdisco re-appoints sacked CEO after shareholder revolt

Only a week after being encouraged to step down, big data software company WANdisco has re-appointed ex-chief executive David Richards and so lost chairman Paul Walker, who has resigned.

Richards, co-founder of the company over a decade ago, stepped down with immediate effect last Thursday to be replaced in the interim by Walker.

However Walker and fellow independent non-executive director Ian Duncan have now stepped down after saying they had "been informed that approximately 58% of the company's shareholders support David's reinstatement as CEO".

While shares in the company initially surged by as much as 17% to a year's high on Richards' departure a week ago, they have since fallen back slightly.

In a statement explaining their resignations, Walker and Duncan said "had not considered David the right person to lead the company going forwards" but remain confident that it has "a unique product portfolio that will be of great value to the leading companies in the big data and cloud market".

Last week, Richards said he felt the business was at an "appropriate juncture, place and scale for a new person" to lead the company, and apparently most of his shareholders think that person is him.

Shares in WANdisco were down 15% to 188p on this new update, showing what some of the other 42% of shareholders think.