John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, the company whose 3D game engine had recently seen backlash from developers over proposed fee structures, will retire as CEO, president, and board chairman at the company, according to a press release issued late on a Monday afternoon, one many observe as a holiday.
He ran EA. It doesn’t matter if he retires or is fired. It’s irrelevant at that level. Everyone knows the board said you need to leave, which means being fired. The only potential difference is final compensation. Future job prospects are not changed either way for him.
I suspect openly being fired would make harder for his mates in the boards of other companies to convince the remaining board members to hire him.
It’s not about competence, it’s about not having quietly stepped out when asked to (only CEOs that don’t quietly step out are fired, the rest “retire”) - you could say that the deadly sin by a CEO for a Board is not incompetence, it’s making a fuss when asked to leave.