FORTUNE — Dell Inc. today made its first major management change since being going private late last year, announcing that chief financial officer Brian Gladden is leaving the company. His replacement will be Thomas Sweet, who had been serving as the computer-maker’s corporate controller and chief accounting officer.
Michael Dell lauded Gladden’s “many contributions” in a prepared statement, while Gladden said that “as Dell turns the page to start its next chapter, I have decided it is the right time for me to do the same.”
It is entirely possible that Gladden does indeed feel that his job at Dell is done, and he’s excited about some new opportunity (a Dell spokesman notes that Gladden once was a CEO, and aspires to be one again). And it’s equally possible that Michael Dell is saddened by Gladden’s departure, and tried to convince him to stay.
But let me propose a more cynical scenario: Gladden was pushed, either explicitly or implicitly.
Gladden was the company’s chief financial officer, but Dell’s financial performance consistently came up short of its internal projections. In fact, things got so bad during the buyout process that Dell’s special committee paid The Boston Consulting Group to provide an independent financial analysis of the company’s prospects. In other words, Dell could no longer trust the numbers they were getting from Gladden and his team.
At the time, I wrote that “it’s kind of a wonder that CFO Brian Gladden still has his job.”
Well, now he doesn’t.
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