Palm chief executive Carl Yankowski resigns

Palm's chief executive Carl Yankowski has resigned.

Mr Yankowski cited the company's restructuring for his decision.

Chairman Eric Benhamou will take his place until a permanent replacement is named.

Palm is in the final stages of forming a subsidiary that will focus on the Palm operating system.

The unit will work independently from the core group that makes the handheld devices.

"With Palm's transition into two individual businesses almost complete, my role has changed, and it no longer matches my aspirations," Mr Yankowski said.

He took the helm at Palm in December, 1999.

The former chief executive of Sony Electronics and Reebok International helped oversee Palm's spin-off from its parent company 3Com.

News of his resignation comes as Palm is suffering from slow sales.

Although it remains the world's leading vendor of personal digital assistants, it faces increasing competition - most notably from Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system and PDA makers that use the Microsoft platform.