Palm CEO Yankowski quits

Carl Yankowski has stepped down from the CEO post at handheld specialist Palm.

Former 3Com boss and chairman of Palm's board Eric Benhamou will serve as CEO until a replacement is found.

In a statement released last night in the US after markets closed, Yankowski said: "With Palm's transition into two individual businesses almost complete, my role has changed, and it no longer matches my aspirations."

In the summer the company announced it will separate its hardware and platform businesses. Former AT&T CTO David Nagel has already been hired to take the helm at the software platform group, centred on the Palm OS.

Yankowski was previously known as a go-getter executive at Sony and Reebok, and it was hoped that his appointment - which came as Palm was spun off from parent 3Com and floated - would help the company consolidate its market leading position and make a stronger consumer push.

However, the move to delineate the company's operations would have changed the nature of the CEO's role, and the company has been under pressure all year due to a subdued share price and well-documented inventory problems.

Yankowski was voted the thirty-ninth most important high-tech Agenda Setter in Europe in a silicon.com poll earlier this year.

He has made no comment on his future plans.