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Why MAXIS Group CEO Resigned?



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Jul 06 2007
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Are you surprise with the departure announcement of Maxis Communications Bhd group CEO, Datuk Jamaludin Ibrahim, by the end of July 2007? I’m not, and the reason which I think contribute to the quit-letter is strongly related to the privatization. He will nevertheless continue to serve on the board of directors and remain with Maxis’ parent company, Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd, as a non-executive director. Maxis’ CEO for Malaysia, Sandip Das, will take over from Jamaludin.

It was reported (as expected) that his resignation is due to personal reason and not related to the recent privatization. He’s the guy who helped and saw the company which he commanded took public in 2002. But he’s also the guy who watched helplessly from his chair how the company was delisted on the 22nd June 2007. In short, he helped Ananda tripled the tycoon’s fortune from a mere RM11 billion in 2002 to RM40 billion in 2007 in market capitalisation.

Why is he quitting?

In the process of enriching Ananda, Jamal (as he’s normally called) also benefited in terms of generous stocks option (latest being receiving close to RM15 million by accepting Binariang’s RM15.38 per share offer for close to one million shares) which has made him a millionaire as well. But with the delisting, he basically lost the cash-cow, the same cow which made him millions of dollars and which will never comes back to home anymore.

It was made known that Ananda has adopted the look Indian-SriLankan policy with the privatization. Mr Sandip Das was the Deputy Managing Director of Essar Hutchison’s operations in India before joining Maxis with a strategic role of supporting the India operations of Maxis in the form of Aircel (Aircel is 74% owned by Maxis). Sandip was the second in command at Hutchison and was the first employee spending 13 years there. Besides money, a great roadmap and vision could have been painted to attract Sandip by tycoon Ananda.

Experience wise, Sandip knows India more than anyone else and this includes Jamal. So could there be difference in opinions between both giants, Jamal and Sandip? Or could this resignation already anticipated by Ananda when his plan was laid on the table? As the saying goes, there can’t possibly be two tigers living harmoniously within the same mountain. And since Maxis Malaysia operations are almost on auto-pilot mode, Jamal is definitely disposable. Ananda is a cool-blooded businessman anyway, the same reason why he’s so successful till now. Ever heard of the story that he actually turned down the proposal because the cost was too “high” to lay a fiber-option cable at his home to solve the slow internet access problem?

Which operation could be affected?

Prior to his 10-year tenure at Maxis, Jamaludin was the CEO of information technology firm Digital Equipment (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, often referred as DEC or DIGITAL (acronym for Digital Equipment Corporation). DEC was then acquired by Compaq in June 1998. Subsequently Compaq merged with Hewlett-Packard in May 2002. So it’s no coincidence that Hewlett-Packard Company’s (NYSE: HPQ, stock) monopolise most of the hardware and software within Maxis Malaysia I.T. operations. The rumor which has been circulating is that Maxis is nearing to outsource the I.T. to most probably HP, the same way Malayan Banking Berhad (KLSE: MAYBANK, stock-code 1155) outsourced to CSC.

Most of the senior staffs of Maxis already have jumped boat elsewhere. It would be interesting to see if Jamal would pull his followers together to his new destination, a norm especially when such a high-ranking person left a company. Maxis has more than one COO (chief operating officer) taking care of different areas and they do not see eye-to-eye. So expect a major restructuring with Jamal’s departure. At the age of 48, you don’t think Jamal will retire from the scene, do you?

Besides internal staff, expect major changes to the vendors as well since existing suppliers depends very much on the strings pulled previously in securing contracts.

Which company do you think Jamal would end up with ultimately? Would it be another telecommunication company? Care to guess? There’re not many telco in Malaysia anyway – Telekom, Celcom, DIGI, TimeDotCom, MiTV or others.

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Comments

I like the blog…but it isn’t in English for me…LOL…keep up the good work!

Hi,I have been reading your postings regularly for some time. I think you have great content and write beautifully. I have two suggestions to make. I hope you can take them sportingly. One, I am a little perturbed by your over anti-establishment attitude. I think we should give everyone a fair chance. Second, I wish you would pay a little more attention to your grammar, tenses, singular, plural, etc. I too am from Chinese education background. I think we should set a good example to others especially those who are younger and are learning from us. You can be so much better if you could pay a little more attention to the grammar.
Cheers.

Nice blog. Well targeted niche.

Good luck to your blogging…

Blogging Mix
Everything good about blogs and blogging!

hello taylor_blue … not sure what you meant by it’s not english for you … my blog is in english, so i take it that you don’t understand english and prefer your native language 🙂

anonymous … thanx for your comments, not sure why you think i’m anti-establishment … mind to tell me which article(s) that made you think in such way? … who didn’t i give chance to? the tycoon, the govn or the minority shareholders? *grin*

yeah, grammar is what i’m trying to improve but sometimes it was overlooked … just like what shoemaker once said, it will only get worse *evil grin*

hello rocky, thanx and i hope you’re doing great with yours as well …

cheers …

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