Flash: CEO PCM leaves per direct

In my last posting about PCM, I forecasted that the CEO of PCM Mr Ton aan de Stegge would leave within have a year. Well he did within a few weeks after the exit of the equity company Apax and the re-installation of the former shareholders, three foundations.

Mr Aan de Stegge’s threw up a lot of dust in his short reign. In a few weeks after his appointment, he promised that the Dutch newspaper world would never be the same again. He did this at a conference of the broadcast industry. A free broadsheet was a pet project. He negotiated a deal with the financer of De Pers, but was called back by the shareholders. At his exit a new free broadsheet is on the drawing board. The new owners have asked him to be a project consultant.

Two years have passed at PCM without decent management and strategy. Mr Theo Bouwman, who invited Apax to step in, was pensioned off, saying that his period at PCM was not his finest hour (which is the understatement of this century). Mr Philip Alberdingk Thijm had to leave last month and took after 1 year of service two million euro along. Now Mr Aan de Stegge leaves as he has a predictable conflict with the new shareholders. He will also leave and take along a nice sum. So PCM has lost a lot of money to managers that leave after a short while.

Now the new shareholders have their hands free to put their own management in place and develop their strategy. Whether they will succeed is still questionable as they were not the brightest strategists and not the sharpest accountants before Apax stepped in.

But as I said before: Never a dull moment at PCM.