Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Black Duck names Timothy Yeaton CEO

By Galen Moore

After five months without a chief executive, Black Duck Software Inc. has appointed a new CEO.

Former EqualLogic CMO Timothy Yeaton will join the Waltham-based maker of open-source development software, the company announced. EqualLogic Inc. was acquired by Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) last year in a deal worth $1.4 billion.

Prior to EqualLogic, Yeaton was senior vice president of worldwide marketing and general manager of enterprise products at open-source software maker Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), CEO at Avaki Corp.

Former Black Duck CEO Doug Levin, who helped found the company in 2002, left the corner office last September, and remains on the board of directors. He is currently involved in a new startup company, still in stealth mode, called Zingero LLC. CFO Ken Goldman has been acting as CEO since Levin’s departure.

On Monday, Black Duck announced it has secured $9.5 million in new venture funding, including $5 million in equity financing from its existing investors, and $4.5 million in venture debt financing from Gold Hill Capital. The company plans to use the cash to fuel international expansion.

Black Duck’s investors include General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Focus Ventures, Intel Capital, SAP Ventures and Red Hat Inc. The company’s total venture funding is $38.5 million.

Founded in 2002, Black Duck’s offering is designed to mitigate legal, security and management challenges associated with the use of open-source software through a hybrid development process that combines open-source software with internally developed and third-party code.