Taking a break from meetings in Chicago yesterday, I was tipped to a rumor that Sudipta Bhattacharya was out as CEO of Invensys Operations Management. Eventually, I received a statement from Invensys. My news report is at Automation World. Back in is Mike Caliel.

You may remember Caliel as CEO of Invensys Process Systems (an assemblage of Foxboro, Triconex, Avantis and SimSci-Esscor) when the company’s InFusion and ArchestrA products were announced. He left the company supposedly because he wanted to live in Houston and the main office was in Foxboro, Mass. His replacement nearly destroyed the company. Bhattacharya, then president of Wonderware, was tapped to form IOM by adding Wonderware to the mix.There’s no doubt that he turned things around financially. But perhaps he was unable to unify the company.

Caliel was hugely popular at Foxboro, so the comments amongst the perennial complainers on Jim Pinto’s Weblog showed delight and joy. But, I would caution them that there will be no return to “the good old days” because times have changed. And he was the leader whose strategy has led to much of what we see now. And many “Foxboro” people are in senior leadership positions. They aren’t all Wonderware.

I offer some analysis at Automation World. To expand a little, this move creates a lot of questions. Have the internal battles between Foxboro and Wonderware people reached a head? Will Invensys seek to split off Wonderware for eventual sale? Was Caliel brought back to a) strengthen the process business or b) prepare it for sale?

We will know soon enough. New leaders mean new teams. So we’ll be watching the moves and signals in the coming months. Perhaps we’ll get to chat with Caliel next month and see what brought him back.

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