Beleaguered US-based IT/BP services major, CSC, is now looking for a new CEO as Mike Laphen announced his intention to step down as chairman, president and CEO no later than this time next year. Laphen has been with CSC nearly 35 years, and assumed the top job(s) in 2007. He previously spent three years running CSC’s European operations.
So where does this leave CSC? Well, still mired in the ruinous NPfIT debacle, for one thing (see CSC and NPfIT: the saga continues).
But there is a wider question. What is the point of CSC?
Having undergone a number of ‘meaning of life’ reviews over the years (not all self-initiated), nothing much seems to have changed from its old conglomerate-style ‘global’ services operations. Margins are now below 5% (see Margins slide at CSC as iSOFT comes on board), well under half of those of its US-based peers.
To be blunt, no-one would want to buy CSC holus-bolus – indeed its substantial US federal government business would all but preclude that, let alone the albatross that is its contract with the NHS. But chop out those bits and maybe some unsuspecting hardware manufacturer – or perhaps a telco – will come along and make an offer that investors would be bonkers to refuse.