US cybersecurity firm Norse is said to have sacked its CEO just weeks after nearly a third of staff were let go.
Sources “close to the matter” told Brian Krebs that board member Howard Bain would be taking over the firm temporarily after its directors decided to jettison Sam Glines.
Staff have apparently been told that if they turn up for work on Monday they may not be paid.
This comes just weeks after Norse announced job losses amounting to nearly 30% of its total roster.
Sources are also claiming that the company is set to be merged with fellow Californian security vendor SolarFlare, which apparently shares some of the same investors and investment capital.
The upheaval comes despite a successful Series A1 funding round last year which saw Norse raise $11.4 million, and win the backing of KPMG Capital.
“Our clients face highly sophisticated cyber threats,” said KPMG’s global leader of cybersecurity, Malcolm Marshall, at the time.
“Working with Norse enables us to keep track of the rapidly changing threat landscape to ensure we can provide early warning and deep insights into the tactics employed by attackers, as well as practical actions to counter them."
Yet Krebs alleges the firm’s founders have been involved in previous companies which reveal “a pattern of failed businesses, reverse mergers, shell companies and product promises that missed the mark by miles.”
The cybersecurity space is an increasingly crowded and competitive market—with countless rivals jostling for IT buyers’ hearts, minds and wallets.
As a result, M&A activity has been fierce in 2015. Merger advisory firm Hampleton Partners claimed that 40 cloud security firms were acquired in the first half of last year—almost as many as the previous two years combined.
The list was topped by Blue Coat Systems’ $2.4bn purchase by private investment firm Bain Capital.
Infosecurity has contacted Norse for comment but had not heard back at the time of writing.