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Inman News on Point2 Resignations

By: Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS®
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 5:58 AM

This will slip behind Inman's pay wall later today, so read it quick if you are not a Inman subscriber.

It reads, in part:

Point2 Technologies confirms group of resignations

Outgoing COO says departure relates to disagreement

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Inman News

The chief operating officer, chief technology officer and five other leaders at real estate technology and marketing company Point2 Technologies announced their resignations last week, a Point2 spokesman and its former chief operating officer confirmed Monday.

A team of employees, including COO Brendan King, vice president of systems development Jason Collins, and software product manager Jeff Tomlin were among the departing group. Jay Thompson, who authors the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog, suggested in a Friday blog post that something was perhaps askew at Point2. And a related blog posting at the RELiberation site drew scores of comments.

King said he left for personal reasons including a fundamental disagreement with the company's future plans. "I disagreed with the strategy and direction going forward, so I decided to move onto different opportunities," King said. He did not reveal his career plans. He said that the group of employees at Point2 "was a dream team."

"I, as did everyone else, gave a very long resignation period," King said, adding, "I haven't been back to the office as of last Monday. I've been helping over the phone and via e-mail."

Noujeim said that the company planned to formally announce the employee departures in a Dec. 11 press release. The group of departing employees included Jon Levesque, John Fothergill, Greg Miller, Allan Wolinski -- who all worked in the company's real estate division. Chester Hagen, chief operating officer for Point2's heavy equipment division, has also left, Noujeim said.

It has been a challenge to fill the roles of the departing employees, said Noujeim. "People are getting figured out -- who's going to assume what role." But he said there will be "no change whatsoever to our customer business or the systems." (my emphasis)
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Comments

Member Since '03	Howard Arnoff said: Thanks Jay, and congratulations on winning the Odysseus Medal for your fine work on covering the story. December 11, 2007 8:30 AM
Member Since '06	Cathy Clark said: Yes, Congrats Jay! http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?cat=23 December 11, 2007 8:57 AM
Member Since '07	Bill Thompson, REALTOR® said: Quote: "Noujeim said that the company planned to formally announce the employee departures in a Dec. 11 press release." I guess that means the official word comes out today. Has anyone seen anything yet? December 11, 2007 9:38 AM
Member Since '05	Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS® said: Thanks Howard and Cathy. I didn't write that for the recognition, I wrote it because I thought it needed to be said (but the recognition is nice, don't get me wrong). Hopefully Roger, Barry and company don't hate me for it. I am, and continue to be, a big P2 fan. They will get through this. I can tell you one thing though, if you can ever get a link in Inman News, your traffic will go NUTS! Bill - I haven't seen the release from P2 yet. I suspect the first place it will land is here: http://technologies.point2.com/Newsroom/pressrelease.asp It won't take long at all for news services to pick it up once it's released. December 11, 2007 9:57 AM
Member Since '07	Shelly Constantz said: Rock on Jay!! Your big time with an Inman click through to your site. Hope P2 servers are up to it : ) Just kidding. We know they can take it. And we can say we knew you when..... Shelly December 11, 2007 10:37 AM
Member Since '05	Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS® said: Oh Shelly, I'm still just little old me.... Here's another "benefit" to an Inman link (and I use the word benefit very lightly). Just fielded my ninth call this morning from lead generation companies, companies trying to sell me a web site, and other various leeches. I usually get several calls a week like this, but nine before 10:00am is ridiculous. December 11, 2007 11:02 AM
Member Since '06	Ginger Fawcett said: Has anyone else paid particular attention to the following quote from the article: King said that customers of Point2's real estate services "shouldn't feel any visible change," though the company may go in "new directions now." He also said that the workers who resigned would probably "love to come back." I like many of you spent last evening copying my site to my hard drive. I also spent several hours exploring some other web site providers to create a back up (yes, all my eggs are now in one basket). Then I read the quote and wondered if we can't get them back. Point2 is crazy to think that their departure won't hurt thier business. The folks on this board are some of the strongest Point2 supporters out of all their customers and we are all suddenly considering other options. That doesn't bode well for the long term future of Point2. If we all find new web site providers then there is no company. I think we need to demand answers and demand that they reconsider hiring them back as I don't care what they say, Brendan and the group were the genious behind the organization and anything less is unacceptable. Besides, if they left because they don't like Point2 future direction I would imagine that we won't either. Did anyone else read into it what I did? Any suggestions on what we can or should do? December 11, 2007 11:02 AM
Member Since '05	Sue Berger said: Thanks Jay for keeping us up to date on the latest happenings and congratulations. Thank you to for sharing the site for backing up your website at http://www.httrack.com also. I meant to thank you for that one yesterday, better late than never. December 11, 2007 11:18 AM
Member Since '05	Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS® said: I hear you loud and clear Ginger. Personally, I'm waiting on the press release from Point2 before I go into deeper analysis mode. I'm hoping it answers some questions. If Brendan said he, "disagreed with the strategy and direction going forward" then I would like to know what the strategy and direction going forward are. Someone must have been able to clarify it to Brendan, so how about clarifying it to the customers? Maybe the press release will do that. I hope so. As customers, we don't set the company strategy and direction. But we certainly deserve to understand what it is so that we can decide what we need to do for OUR business. For all I know, that strategy and direction may be better. Time will tell. Hopefully P2 will be as open about it as they have been in the past. December 11, 2007 11:18 AM
Member Since '05	Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS® said: Sue, you're more than welcome. Cool picture! December 11, 2007 11:22 AM
Member Since '07	Connie Clark said: Ginger: When I read this this morning, I had your exact thoughts. I read Brendan's statement: "I disagreed with the strategy and direction going forward, so I decided to move onto different opportunities" and then I read the last statement by Mr. Noujeim stating "...there will be "no change whatsoever to our customer business or the systems." Hhhmmm....something definitely is amiss in these two statements. I would like to say I am not skeptical, but I am. Again, after having been in these types of situations before, you may not see changes right away, but 6 months to a year down the road (and sometimes as soon as 2 or 3 months), they are often a very different company...though as we are all hoping..it will be an even better company. But when the true "visionaries" of the company leave...it's hard to believe it will be "better"...at least not for a while. I searched extensively before going with Point2 and felt I had made a very good decision, and certainly if they made no changes and kept what they have, I would still be very pleased. The only thing I am changing is my blog platform (to TypePad), and I was already in the process of doing that before the announcement came out. Like you...and thanks to Jay...my site is now backed up, just in case. There are other options out there...but still nothing really like Point2. So...I wait patiently with everyone else for the "vision" and where the company is headed. Unfortunately in these cases, it's usually a "time will tell scenario" to see what is true and what is not and that usually happens over a period of several months...not a week. December 11, 2007 11:42 AM
Support Staff	Carey Tufts said: I'll continue to share everything I possibly can with y'all, on this or any other topic, but making our strategic directions and long-term vision public knowledge would be a remarkably bad business decision, wouldn't you agree? December 11, 2007 11:53 AM
Member Since '05	Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS® said: "but making our strategic directions and long-term vision public knowledge would be a remarkably bad business decision, wouldn't you agree?" I don't need to know the details and specifics of a 5 year plan. But a "10,000 foot level" overview isn't unreasonable, IMHO. Part of why I use the P2 system is because of what I understand their "vision and direction" to be. In the past, P2 has always seemed willing to share this with their customers. Specific strategies and techniques to get somewhere aren't necessary for me to know. The general direction of where you are headed is. But maybe that's just me.... December 11, 2007 12:21 PM
Member Since '03	Mike Farmer said: Direction and vision shouldn't be specific and should be made public. December 11, 2007 12:40 PM
Support Staff	Carey Tufts said: Mike & Jay - couldn't agree more. There's no doubt that our long-term and higher-level focus will remain clear, especially as we continue make our presence felt at upcoming speaking engagements - this week in Wisconsin and in January at Inman in New York in particular. December 11, 2007 12:50 PM
Member Since '03	Mike Farmer said: Come on down to Savannah. I don't know if anyone here will listen to long speeches, but you'll have fun. I'll take Willick to River Street and before the night's over I'll get you that raise, maybe even a promotion to Chief Muckity-Muck. December 11, 2007 1:55 PM
Member Since '06	Cathy Clark said: Spidey, you're a miracle worker! Carey is Chief Muckity-Muck! December 11, 2007 2:05 PM
Member Since '07	Bill Thompson, REALTOR® said: Jay - I guess I need to go back and read the stuff at your website again. Who was the CFO and someone (claiming to be a P2 employee) mentioned. Is his name in the list of newly promoted people? I missed it if it was, but I can't remember the name anyway. December 11, 2007 2:22 PM
Member Since '07	Bill Thompson, REALTOR® said: Okay, Jason Golding is the CFO that was mentioned often by people claiming to be P2 employees. I think that may be where the story is. Some of these employees seemed to think Golding was being promoted to CEO. If Brendan King and other key people felt they were being passed over for promotion that might be why they left. There I go speculating again. Could be way off, but may have hit the nail on the head. December 11, 2007 2:51 PM
Member Since '05	Jay & Francy Thompson REALTORS® said: My thoughts from the other thread: Personally, I'm going to leave Brendan's reasons at "for personal reasons and differences pertaining to Point2’s operations and direction." That's good enough for me. Anything else is speculation and requires making assumption based on partial and/or one-side data / opinion. There are always two sides to every story. It's really none of my business why anyone left. What I care about is my website, and getting the most for it from an innovative company. P2 fits that bill to a T, and until they prove otherwise, they've got my business! December 11, 2007 3:24 PM
Member Since '07	Bill Thompson, REALTOR® said: You are right Jay. I agree! December 11, 2007 3:29 PM
Member Since '05	Lonn Dugan said: Carey said: "making our strategic directions and long-term vision public knowledge would be a remarkably bad business decision, wouldn't you agree?" NO I DO NOT AGREE. I think it would be VERY SMART. December 12, 2007 6:55 AM
Member Since '07	Jim Ricker said: I agree with Lonn. This sounds like 'damage control' with their present clients on the part of P2. If they gave us a '10,000 foot level' of what the plans are to their present clients (US) like Jay said, THAT would be a much smarter way to go. Then let us, the paying clients, decide whether we like the new direction, or decide we need to go in another direction with another website provider. Give us a TEASER of what is coming...keep the interest flowing to your present clients...unless this IS just damage control talking... December 12, 2007 7:59 AM