I know a number of people who have worked with or for Karl Jacobs over the years (at Keen and elsewhere) and have heard all sorts of stories (both good and bad) about his management style. While I always thought Keen.com fell too much into the "overhype" category (they said they were revolutionizing the telephone business, when in reality, if anything, they were simplifying the 1-900 business), they had managed to survive through these difficult times. However, it seems that a number of top management folks got sick of Karl and had the board force him out. The article suggests that people on all sides of the issue (especially Karl himself) were quite surprised at the turn of events. No board meeting was called - he was just immediately asked to resign. A bit of interesting insight into how a dot com goes about firing its CEO these days.