Former staff call for THQ execs to be fired

A group of former staff at publisher THQ have called for four "underqualified" senior executives, including CEO Brian Farrell, to be fired.

In a letter sent to THQ's board of directors and several investors, blind copied to a NeoGaf user, the former employees claim that "chronic and constant mismanagement" caused a slew of layoffs and studio closures and drove the publisher's share price into the doldrums.

The letter opens with an explanation of the "formula" from which THQ profited in its early days. "They find a hot licence, make a cheap game, barely advertise it, and make money," the letter says. "This formula worked during the PlayStation and Xbox and Game Boy days … [but] THQ's old guard executives seem to be stuck trying to manage the company the same way they did back then, and haven't realised the industry has changed."

CEO Brian Farrell is singled out for spearheading the acquisition and formation of a large number of studios "without strategic reasoning or specific plan." Many of those studios were later closed: last year the publisher shut down Homefront developer Kaos Studios, its UK studio Digital Warrington, two in Australia and another in Phoenix, Arizona. "The executive team at the time were an entirely different group of people with one key exception," the letter reads. "The CEO."

The management team is further criticised for having "bet everything on an extremely risky proposition in the uDraw tablet." While uDraw was a reasonable success early on - in its 2011 fiscal year THQ shipped 1.7 million units of its Wii peripheral - its expansion to PS3 and Xbox 360 failed miserably. Last month THQ laid off 30 staff, including business unit leader Martin Good, after poor uDraw sales forced it to lower its earnings forecast by 25 per cent.

The letter says Farrell, who earns just under $1.3 million (£827,000) a year, should go for presiding over a decline in THQ's share price from $30 to 77¢. It also calls for the heads of Paul Pucino, CFO who earned $675,000 last year; Ian Curran, EVP and head of global publishing, on a salary of $1.04 million; and Ed Kaufmann, EVP of legal and business affairs. Martin Good is also singled out.

"uDraw was a failure and the only people to blame are the people listed above," the letter, the full text of which is at the source link below, claims in closing. "THQ and its current financial situation is also their responsibility. And [together] they were paid around $4.5 million for their poor decisions.

"We've watched the stock from the outside and read the comments, and the reason why the company is valued so low despite its sales is because of this underqualified management team.

"Board, it is time for you to act before your names are added to the list above of things that must change."

Source: NeoGaf