CA hires Xbox cofounder as new tech chief in a bid to revive growth

New York-based CA Inc has announced Xbox cofounder Otto Berkes as its new chief technology officer as it tries to make a shift towards software that helps corporate clients such as banks and retailers.

According to Computer World, Berkes starts his new job at CA Inc on June 15. He will be reporting directly to CEO Mike Gregoire.

52 year-old Berkes is one of the cofounders of Xbox gaming console. He spent 18 years at Microsoft Corporation, where he held a number of senior-level positions. Most recently he was CTO of Time Warner Inc's HBO, where he worked on many projects for HBO GO.

Berkes has a deep understanding of corporate technologies and CA Inc CEO Mike Gregoire believes that his expertise will be instrumental in bringing clearer strategy and technologies to the company, said WSJ in an article.

In the 1980s and 1990s CA Inc became a powerful technology company. During that period it was developing software for mainframes and building big servers that were used for commercial computing.

CA Inc's fortunes however have faded with the slowdown in the mainframes business. CA Inc's revenue has seen a fall in the past three consecutive years.

Fall in revenue for the past 3 years has led Mike Gregoire, - who joined the company two years back - to make a move towards software applications. The software applications will help clients create web services and mobile applications for their customers. Also it will make corporate computer-servers run effectively.

Besides CA's existing customers, Mike Gregoire wants new customers to buy its newer products so that the company can move towards increasing its revenue.

CA Inc, Microsoft, Oracle, International Business Machines and Hewlett-Packard are trying to make itself relevant in a new era of corporate technologies.

Gregoire also said CA Inc is also hiring a new chief product officer. The duty of the chief product officer will be to oversee mainframe software to mobile technology.

CA Inc has acquired Rally Software for $480 million, PC World reported.

Current valuation of CA Inc stands at $13 billion.