News of Rackspace CEO Retirement Has Twitter, Facebook All Abuzz

Shares of Rackspace

are down more than 10 percent Monday afternoon following

. While investors are rethinking their positions in RAX, techies around the web are considering another important item: news the company's CEO Lanham Napier will be retiring. The company's current Chairman (and a former CEO) Graham Weston will fill the role of CEO until an appropriate replacement is found. A press release from Rackspace just a minute before the quarterly figures were released said, "Graham is the right person to step in and lead Rackspace since he's been with the company from the beginning and served us well previously as CEO for seven years. I am confident that Rackspace's future is brighter than ever and that Graham and Taylor Rhodes, as president, will continue to build on our success." Buzzing on the social networks following the news, Rackspace's "Startup Liaison Officer" Robert Scoble offered the following post on Facebook: "My first thoughts? I had lots of advice for Microsoft when it went through its CEO search. I will do a similar post for Rackspace. But right now just wanted to say thank you to a friend who has done a lot in 14 years at Rackspace. Glad to know you Lanham and can't wait to see what you do next."