
NPM CEO Bryan Bogensberger Resigned - fharper
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/npm-inc-announces-leadership-change-300922517.html?tc=eml_cleartime
======
asien
I’m fascinated by the fact that while node has become a new standard in the
industry , and the project is receiving lots of supports from all sorts of
companies ( IBM , Microsoft etc...) absolutely no discussion has been opened
about how much at risk the JavaScript ecosystem actually is with « npm » and
it’s weekly dramas

Not a month pass without something going wrong inside of inc, millions of
developers are dependant on it but nothing seem to worry people...

~~~
cjblomqvist
Honest question, is it that much better in other communities? In particular,
it's there anything inherent to npm that's problematic or is it just that a
huge community with a Unix mindset (small packages that does one thing well)
is problematic?

~~~
kace91
Lack of a large enough standard library is a big differenciating factor, as it
makes you very dependent on third party libraries.

Even if you avoid it by creating your own utils, chances are that the creators
of the large packages you use (like a database manager or a rest framework)
will depend directly or indirectly of those third party tools.

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jeremiahlee
Under Bryan Bogensberger's leadership, npm lost:

\- its CTO

\- its COO co-founder

\- some fantastic people in the JavaScript community

\- a federal labor dispute

\- its culture

\- its reputation

\- its business model to Github

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
They had a business model?

~~~
koolba
I always assumed their business model was " _Stay afloat till $BIG_CORP
acquires us_ ".

~~~
aikah
It's obvious to me that Microsoft will end up buying NPM Inc.

~~~
goatinaboat
Why? They already own Github which is about to reduce NPM to “feature, not
product” status

~~~
dredmorbius
Why did Facebook buy WhatsApp, or Oracle buy Peoplesoft?

Typically: to enhance their offerings, remove a competitor, or shut it down.

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hn_throwaway_99
I wish companies would do away with the "leaving to pursue other
opportunities" nonsense and just give no reasons if they don't want to discuss
it.

No C-level exec resigns "effective immediately" without either a transition
plan in place or something concrete lined up. I get wanting to allow him to
say he resigned instead of he was fired, but the silly language of the press
release just makes it worse.

~~~
Ididntdothis
Maybe “he wants to spend more time with family”?

~~~
dopamean
This is my favorite excuse in sports because they "retiree" almost always
comes back out of retirement which leads me to believe they've had enough time
with their family.

~~~
trakter
Nico Rosberg, springs to mind. Not racing again, but he does like to show his
face at the races a lot.

~~~
WillPostForFood
He is working for Sky as a commentator at races. Doing the occasional TV
commentary is a lot less time consuming, is a lot less stressful, and allows a
lot more family time, than driving for the #1 F1 team, against arguably the
best F1 driver off all time in Lewis Hamilton

------
cols
Looks as if he was asked to leave. No surprise given the terrible optics
they've been under for the past year. NPM is such a vital tool and I really
enjoy using it. I hope their next CEO makes better decisions in regards to the
humans who work there. Good luck to all the NPM staff! I'm rooting for you!

From the Register...

"According to people familiar with the matter, Bogensberger was asked to leave
by the company's board of directors." [0]

For more context...from Jonathan Cowperthwait, NPM's former vice president of
marketing...

"Many of us spent the last year watching our friends and colleagues' struggle
through our fingers, but I'm still profoundly confident in the company's
ability to turn this around. Sometimes bad executives happen to a good
company." [1]

[0]
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/20/npm_ceo_bryan_bogen...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/20/npm_ceo_bryan_bogensbergers_off/)

[1] [https://www.businessinsider.com/npm-ceo-bryan-
bogensberger-r...](https://www.businessinsider.com/npm-ceo-bryan-bogensberger-
resigns-2019-9)

~~~
sneak
Why was he asked to leave? To which “terrible optics” do you refer? Your
implied context is opaque.

~~~
fharper
Here is some background on some of the things that happened while he was CEO:
[https://twitter.com/fharper/status/1111694552262459393](https://twitter.com/fharper/status/1111694552262459393)

~~~
asciident
Maybe I didn't read too far into the thread, but it sounds like they laid off
a guy, provided some severance, and there weren't many managers that sent him
a goodbye note? I don't see the connection here... what was the bad thing they
did?

~~~
fharper
Yep, no goodbye note was really the highlight of everything that happened at
npm in the last couple of months.

This article about union busting
[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/technology/tech-
companies...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/technology/tech-companies-
union-organizing.html)

and this one about working conditions at npm
[https://www.businessinsider.com/npm-employees-open-
letter-20...](https://www.businessinsider.com/npm-employees-open-
letter-2019-5)

or The Register who covered mostly everything that happened since the first
layoff mentioned in my Twitter thread
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/04/22/npm_fired_staff_uni...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/04/22/npm_fired_staff_union_complaints/)

~~~
skissane
I don't know anything about NPM's board of directors. I don't know who is on
it. So this should not be read as some sort of criticism of them.

But I know there are _some_ boards of directors out there, who would view the
ability to bust unions (and get away with it) as a reason to hire, not a
reason to fire.

I don't know why they let go of their CEO. I wouldn't assume it was
necessarily for any of the reasons you mentioned. It certainly could have
been, but it also could very easily have been for completely unrelated
reasons.

~~~
fharper
I completely agree with you on this!

I wasn't mentioning those were the reasons, but that those were part of what
happened in the last months.

------
k__
Background:
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/02/npm_abandons_settle...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/02/npm_abandons_settlement_talks/)

------
privateSFacct
Story is all about his “success” and desire to seek new opportunities- why not
a few sentences about the ongoing labor related litigation.

~~~
dstaley
I actually think that litigation is no longer ongoing; Kate Conger from the NY
Times is reporting that the case was settled. [1]

Edit: linked article says the case was settled in June. [2]

[1]
[https://twitter.com/kateconger/status/1175097388253376512](https://twitter.com/kateconger/status/1175097388253376512)

[2] [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/technology/tech-
companies...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/technology/tech-companies-
union-organizing.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share)

~~~
fharper
You are right, a settlement has been made.

------
Sephr
Under Bryan's leadership, multiple namespaces (left-pad, etc.) including my
own (file-saver) have been wrongly transferred to new owners without
authorization from the previous owners.

npm can't handle security, and they have been sorely in need of new leadership
for years.

~~~
ulkesh
If only there were other dependency management build tools they could use as
good examples to emulate....

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meconium
[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/npm-inc-
announces-l...](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/npm-inc-announces-
leadership-change-300922517.html?tc=eml_cleartime)

------
Touche
"resigned"

