hoenix-based point-of-sale terminal manufacturer Hypercom Corp. announced that Chris Alexander, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, retired, effective March 31, 2005. Alexander's retirement comes only 10 days after the departure of Hypercom's Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, John Smolak.

"Chris was thinking seriously about retiring at the end of this year, and with John Smolak's departure, he decided to move forward with his plans for retirement to make it easier for a new CEO to pick a new CFO," said a Hypercom spokesperson.

William Keiper, CEO of Arrange Technology LLC, and a member of Hypercom's Board of Directors, will serve as Chairman and Interim President and CEO. Grant Lyon will serve as Hypercom's Interim CFO. Lyon is President of Odyssey Capital Group LLC.

Alexander will remain a member of the Board of Directors and will also serve as Special Assistant to the Board and CEO.

Alexander and Smolak stepped down amid several purported class action lawsuits filed against the company on Feb. 15. The complaints, which name Hypercom, Alexander and Smolak as defendants, allege that Hypercom violated federal securities laws by issuing false or misleading financial statements (see "Several Lawsuits Filed Against Hypercom," Feb. 28, 2005, issue 05:02:02).

In February, Hypercom restated its financials for each of the first three quarters of 2004 because of errors it made in reporting leases of its United Kingdom subsidiary Hypercom EMEA Inc.

The company incorrectly accounted for some of its 3,200 leases as sales-type leases rather than operating leases. As a result of the errors, Hypercom had overstated its net revenue by at least $4 million and its operating income by at least 65% - 75% for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2004.

Working with outside counsel, Hypercom conducted a seven-week investigation into the restatement regarding the leases. "Based upon the investigation ... the committee concluded that there was no misconduct with regard to the incorrect classification of such leases as sales-type leases," according to a company statement.