Sega man takes top job at Pace

Shares in Pace Micro Technology, which have almost halved since the television set-top box maker floated last year, recovered 3p to 60.5p yesterday after the company finally appointed a new chief executive.

Malcolm Miller, European chief executive of Sega Enterprises, will fill the void left by Barry Rubery, the company's founder, who quit last February.

Pace, which came to the market last June at 172p, has been in the doldrums for some time. Digital broadcasting, which will lead to the introduction of hundreds of new TV channels, has been slow to take off around the world, delaying orders for Pace's set-top boxes which are used to decode TV pictures.

Mr Rubery's departure coincided with a profits warning. Steve Jones, Pace's finance director and co-founder, also resigned in June.

Mr Miller has been at the Japanese computer games manufacturer since 1994, and is to take his post at Pace before the end of the year. He spent 16 years at Amstrad, the computer and electronics company, and became managing director in 1992.