Getinge Board Gives CEO the Boot

CEO Alex Myers had been in charge of the struggling Swedish medical device maker for less than 18 months.

Getinge recently announced that its board has voted to replace CEO Alex Myers, who had only been in charge of the company since March 2015.

The news Monday sent Getinge's stock—already one of the worst performing among major medical device companies—down nearly 4% in value. It was still trading around 168 Swedish krona per share on Wednesday.

Myers had been leading a major restructuring of the Getinge, Sweden–based company. Getinge makes surgical, intensive care, infection control, care ergonomics, and wound care technology.

”The board of directors and Alex Myers have different views on the future direction of the Getinge Group, and the board has therefore concluded that a replacement of the president and CEO is necessary," Carl Bennet, Getinge’s board chairman, said in a news release.

Joacim Lindoff, president of Getinge Surgical Workflows and a member of the company's executive team, will serve as acting president and CEO while the board recruits a new top executive for the company.

“It’s probably a logical decision when you come to that type of situation,” Myers told Bloomberg, which also cited a Pareto Securities analyst note lamenting that the "sudden change in leadership could mean that necessary but long-term changes will not take place."

For the first six months of 2016, sales were down 4.2% year-over-year, down 1.7% when figuring in the effects of currency exchanges. Earnings per share were actually up more than a quarter, to 1.39 Swedish krona. Getinge said last month that it was still waiting for response from FDA over an improvement plan for the company's Hechingen, Germany plant.

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