Napster’s CFO Set To Leave

If the CFO of a highly successful company were to quit for “personal reasons,” an eyebrow or two might need to be raised.  But Nand Gangwani, the CFO of Napster, is stepping down, and, well, there you have it.

At $2.36 per share, Napster’s stock is not the sort of thing to which any self-respecting chief financial officer would want to be tied; it’s rarely a good sign when 4-year-olds can afford to invest in a company.

Shifting even more of our suspicion from Gangwani to his employer is the statement Napster put out to announce his departure.  “Mr. Gangwani has been commuting from his home in the Bay Area to Los Angeles for the last four years,” it noted.  Is that to imply a certain amount of drive time affected the CFO’s decision?

Napster also seems unjustifiably optimistic about its future.  Yet in any event, Gangwani will stay onboard in an official capacity through the end of the year, and will supposedly help whoever is found to replace him adjust to his (or her) new job.

Gangwani seems to have handled his resignation in a professional manner.  Here’s hoping that, if he decides to go back to work, he’s able to find something closer to home and with a stock above $5 per share.