Blackmore Leaving as ShoreTel CEOBlackmore Leaving as ShoreTel CEO

His major move in two and a half years was getting ShoreTel into the Cloud in a big way.

ShoreTel today announced that Peter Blackmore is retiring as the company's CEO after two and a half years on the job.

The company said a search is under way for a successor, and that Blackmore will stay on the job until his replacement is named.

Blackmore's tenure at ShoreTel was most notable for the company's acquisition of M5 Networks in February 2012, which led ShoreTel to a new and increasing focus on providing communications as a service, complementing its CPE with a Cloud strategy. M5 was re-branded ShoreTel Sky.

Under Blackmore's leadership, the company also integrated Agito Networks, the mobility startup it acquired just two months before Blackmore assumed the CEO position. In addition to assimilating Agito as ShoreTel Mobility, ShoreTel made news this week at Interop with the announcement of ShoreTel Dock, a station that lets iOS devices be used as a desk set.

The company's latest financial report shows that ShoreTel narrowed its reported losses and beat Wall Street expectations, while seeing significant growth--45% year-over-year--in customer seats for ShoreTel Sky.