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John Smedley Departs Daybreak After Stepping Down As President, Starts New Company
John Smedley has announced that he founded a new company this month, though details are not yet available. The former president of Daybreak (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) was supposed to be transitioning to a new role in the company after stepping down from his leadership position.
According to Smedley's Facebook profile, he is both CEO at the new company and president at Daybreak, though that could simply be because he hasn't updated his job information. Smedley vacated the president’s seat shortly after taking to Twitter about the conviction of someone associated with a group responsible for various service outages.
Smedley also said that Julius Kivimaki was responsible for the bomb threat and subsequent emergency landing of a plane on which the executive was flying. He closed the tirade, promising to go after Kivimaki and his parents.
The company said that Smedley would be taking some time off, but would be transitioning to an as yet undisclosed new role at Daybreak. Daybreak confirmed to us that Smedley has departed the company.
“On behalf of Daybreak, we wish Smed well in his new endeavors," a representative told us via email. Any questions regarding his new business should be directed to him.” We've reached out to Smedley for comment and will update should he respond.
Update: John Smedley responded to our request for comment. He indicated that he's not ready to announce anything right now, but news should be coming in the next few weeks.
[Source: John Smedley on Facebook via Trust in Play]
Our Take
When Smedley stepped down so soon after the Twitter attack on Kivimaki, it seemed like the two were linked. Also, without a specific new role for him when the announcement was made, an exit isn't surprising at all. We'll share news about his next venture when we have more information.
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