The long-time Chief Executive Officer of Bluesky, Adolfo Montenegro, was terminated as Bluesky’s CEO on Saturday morning by the CEO of BlueSky’s parent company, Amper, Jaime Espinosa.
Amper, a company based in Spain, owns a majority of the shares in the various Bluesky entities making up Bluesky Pacific Group, including Bluesky American Samoa and the American Samoa Hawaii Cable. ASH Cable is the company that manages the undersea fiber optic cable linking the two Samoas and Hawaii.
The firing of Montenegro occurred only a week after Espinosa and representatives of ATH, the Fijian company that’s offered to buy BlueSky, met with representatives of the Governor’s office and the management of Bluesky.
During both meetings Espinosa and ATH reportedly assured locals of their intent to keep Bluesky’s current management team.
Amper and ATH officials told locals that the sale of Bluesky to ATH was in the best interest of Bluesky’s employees and the residents of American Samoa , and that ATH is committed to protecting the jobs of Bluesky’s employees.
But on Saturday morning, Bluesky managers woke up to find an email from Amper’s president, Jaime Espinosa.
Espinosa wrote in the email that Montenegro had been terminated and that Espinosa, would be assuming executive responsibilities for Bluesky for the time being.
Espinosa told Blue Sky managers that the decision to terminate Montenegro was made “after consultations with ATH”.
Montenegro is currently in Samoa and could not be reached for comment.
Bluesky managers contacted by KHJ News said they did not want their names used in this story, but were extremely upset when they received the email from Espinosa.
A meeting with about 30 of Bluesky’s managers and senior staff in American Samoa was held Saturday …the meeting began at 5:00 pm and lasted into the early morning hours of Sunday.
Saturday morning’s email was upsetting to the managers because they and staff first learned the company was being sold to ATH from media stories here in American Samoa, instead of from Amper directly.
Asked for his reaction to Montenegro’s termination by Amper, former Bluesky president Barry Rose said it was “awful but not a surprise” given Amper’s history.
Rose himself is currently suing Amper in Spain for failing to pay Rose and his family for Bluesky stock the Roses sold to Amper in 2013.
Rose said Montenegro, who holds the title Aoe’e, conferred upon him by the late PC Tufele Li’a, is highly regarded within Bluesky offices and throughout the Pacific region.
Rose said persons he has spoken to worry that Montenegro’s forced departure will damage Bluesky and ASH cable, which is 1/3 owned by ASG.
He added, “This is especially true since Amper CEO Jaime Espinosa has appointed himself to run Bluesky for the time being, despite a lack of relevant experience in the telecom business and a lack of familiarity with Bluesky markets and operations in American Samoa, Samoa, the Cook Islands or New Zealand.”
According to Rose, when Montenegro took over as CEO 8 years ago, before Amper acquired Bluesky, Bluesky operated only in American Samoa, with 45 employees and had a value of less than 20 million dollars.
Today, the company has over 400 employees in four countries and Amper is selling its 61% stake in Bluesky to ATH, which is indirectly controlled and backed by the Government of Fiji, for $79 million dollars.
Rose said the growth and expansion of Bluesky is the result of hard work by Montenegro and the Bluesky team and little if any of the credit belongs to Amper which has been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years.
Informed sources tell KHJ that the likely reason for Montenegro’s dismissal is because Montenegro, together with Bluesky staff and local investors, submitted an offer to purchase Bluesky from Amper and has raised questions about the sale to ATH.
Although ATH has pledged to maintain local staff and management, it has also indicated that personnel from ATH in Fiji may be brought in as necessary to manage and operate the companies in American Samoa, Samoa and Cook Islands.
