Founders leave Saber Corp.

Brothers Nitin and Karan Khanna, who founded software services company Saber Corp., have left the company.

An announcement issued Tuesday by Electronic Data Systems Corp., the Texas information technology giant that bought 93 percent of Saber last year for $420 million in cash, said that Frank Chechile, a 23-year employee at EDS, had been appointed CEO of the company, which is now known as Saber Government Solutions.

The announcement didn't say why the Khanna brothers left, only that they resigned "to pursue other entrepreneurial opportunities."

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The departure was apparently abrupt. The brothers are still listed on the Saber site as its top two executives.

It comes as no surprise that the Khannas have other plans. The brothers owned 7 percent of Saber after the EDS purchase, and now likely have sufficient funds to launch a new enterprise.

They have an impressive track record. The Khannas started Saber in Chicago in 1997, and moved the business first to Salem, Oregon and then to Portland. By the time EDS made its offer last year, Saber had reached $125 million in annual revenue, and employed 900 people across the United States, with a small team in India. Of those, 40 were in Salem, 40 in Lake Oswego, and 270 in Salem.

Nitin Khanna told the Business Journal earlier this year he was planning for more growth, with Saber slated to reach $220 million in revenue this year.

The EDS purchase of Saber was one of the largest deals made in the Portland area last year. It brought a reported return of 6.2 times total investment to Silicon Valley private investment firm Accel-KKR, which had purchased a majority share of the company two years earlier for an undisclosed sum.