Reeve Quits Lightbridge Four Months After Buying Authorize.net

Pamela D.A. Reeve, long-time president and chief executive of Lightbridge Inc., has resigned from the Burlington, Mass.-based company, which this spring acquired Authorize.net, a major transaction gateway for Internet merchants, from Infospace Inc. Lightbridge announced that Robert Donahue, a member of the company's board, would step in as interim president and chief executive while the company conducts a search for a permanent replacement. A statement released by the company gave no reason for Reeve's departure but quoted her saying she is leaving after nearly 15 years as the head of the company “to pursue personal and business opportunities that I have been interested in for some time.” She will remain in an advisory role to the Lightbridge board. Donahue, chairman of the board's audit committee, is formerly chief financial officer of Stratus Computer Inc., where among his responsibilities was S2, a subsidiary that marketed online transaction-processing software. He will retain his board seat while serving as interim chief executive. Lightbridge last week released second-quarter financial results that credited the performance of Authorize.net, which became part of the company March 31, with being primarily responsible for driving revenues up 17% to $36.7 million over the year-ago period. Authorize.net's revenue jumped 22% in the quarter to $8.1 million. The unit also added 5,900 merchants during the quarter to push its client base above 100,000. Overall, Lightbridge's net income in the quarter reached $573,000, compared to a loss of $83,000 a year ago. Second quarter results in 2003 included restructuring costs of $1.5 million. Lightbridge specializes in transaction processing, billing, and fraud prevention technology, mainly in the telecommunications market. It bought Authorize.net for $82 million to expand into online transaction processing for Internet merchants. In April, Authorize.net announced an ambitious new strategy to extend its payment-gateway services to the physical point of sale (Digital Transactions News, April 22).