George Garrick has resigned as chairman of Californian digitial identity firm ActivCard after clashing with the board over the future direction of the company.
Garrick's resignation comes only four months after his appointment at the troubled firm, which has reported eight successive quarters of net losses. He was understood to have wanted to restructure the company while using its cash pile to acquire competitors.
The board of directors has formed a special committee "to assist the company's executive management team on both strategic and operational matters until a new chief executive officer is appointed".
The company says it expects to announce fourth quarter revenues of $6.5 million next week, some way off analysts' consensus projections of $8.5 million.
By end-December 2003, ActivCard was sitting on cash and short-term investments totalling approximately $229 million.