Internap Names New President and CEO

Internap Network Services (INAP) has made a leadership change, hiring digital video veteran Eric Cooney as president and chief executive officer. Cooney will take over on March 16, replacing James DeBlasio, who has resigned but will continue his duties until Cooney arrives. DeBlasio had been president and CEO of Internap since 2005.

Cooney was most recently president and chief executive officer of Tandberg Television, part of the Ericsson Group. Internap board chairman Gene Eidenberg cited Cooney's experience in the technology industry and "proven track record of increasing shareholder value."

"His leadership and management skills, combined with his hands-on operational experience in a publicly traded company, are the ideal combination to improve shareholder value and restore investor confidence at Internap,” said Eidenberg.

That confidence has been battered over the past year after Internap botched the integration of the former VitalStream content delivery network, which it purchased in 2007 for $217 million. In March 2008 the company lowered its revenue guidance to reflect the impact of outages on the VitalStream network. In October Internap took a $100 million charge to reflect the decreased value of its CDN business.

Although the news of Cooney's appointment was not announced until after the market closed, Internap shares were sharply lower on the day, falling 56 cents to $2.64, a decline of more than 17 percent for the session.

Cooney, who is 42, built sales at Tandberg through both organic growth and acquisitions en route to the company's sale to Ericsson in early 2007. "Internap has a solid platform and I see strong potential for future growth," said Cooney. "I’m very excited to join the team and help contribute to the future success of Internap.”

The company's statement included comments from DeBlasio. "This is the right time to bring new leadership to Internap as it continues to grow and I believe that Eric will be able to take the company to the next level of performance," he said.