Tom Noonan successfully sold his former company Internet Security Systems (ISS) to IBM for $1.3 billion in 2006.
Some 18 months after the acquisition closed, he left the company and this year officially took the helm of energy management startup JouleX.
I recently met up with Noonan to talk with him about JouleX, but I also managed to squeeze in a short conversation about his time at ISS and why he left IBM. While it’s not uncommon for founders to leave their companies after being acquired, I’m always curious to dig a little deeper and find out how the acquisition and integration actually happened.
In Noonan’s case, he told me he was offered some monies by IBM to stick around, but in the end it wasn’t enough for him to stay. He also explains how ISS operations have been integrated into IBM and overall in his view IBM appears to be doing well with ISS so far.
Check out the clip from my interview with Noonan, for all the details:
