Marimba said founder Kim Polese would resign as the company's chairman by year's end, but retain her seat on the board of directors. Polese stepped down as chief executive in July 2000. Current board member Eric Keller will replace Polese as chairman.
Marimba launched in 1996 as a vendor of so-called push technology, and wound up selling remote enterprise management software. In reviewing her term as CEO three years ago, Polese took credit for the company's first profitable quarter that year, but Marimba has since returned to losses and has seen its stock plummet. Polese, who worked on the Java programming language while at Sun Microsystems, said she was "considering a number of new opportunities" and retained her entrepreneurial interest.