Refocussing at MetaCarta

I spoke to John Donnelly, Executive Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing at MetaCarta, about some recent changes at the company. He explained that at the end of last year the company began making plans to trim and refocus. The upshot was a 10% layoff in January. More recently, the Board of Directors stepped in and arranged for five year CEO Ron Matros to step down. The search is already underway for a new CEO with several candidates already lined up. Donnelly expects to have an announcement later this spring on the appointee.

MetaCarta has been doing quite well with 20% growth in 2008. Still, there was a sense it was time to realign for the next stage. That meant combining sales and marketing (which now report to Donnelly who had been the head of global sales) and more emphasis in core markets of public sector and energy and a bit less in the media arena. While there’s been some good uptake in many media markets, the current challenges in that sector made the company think it was time to back off a bit. But it doesn’t sound like it will be for too long: the new CEO may well have experience in media, advertising and consumer facing solutions.

Donnelly was quick to point some recent contracts. British Transport has signed on the use the technology as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics (press release). The Department of Homeland Security and Shell Oil have re-upped. And, wi-max provider ClearWire offers location-based content on Clear365, using MetaCarta tools. Also coming: a deal with Microsoft.