VeriFone has announced that Douglas Bergeron is stepping down as both CEO and member of the board, effective March 12. Richard McGinn, the company's chairman, will become interim CEO.

"It has been an honor to lead VeriFone through such an exciting period in its history," Bergeron said in a statement. "I am very proud of our progress and accomplishments during the past 12 years. Now is the right time for new leadership to take the baton and continue to drive the company forward."

Bergeron has been at the helm of VeriFone since 2001. No official reason was given for Bergeron's departure from the company, but VeriFone's stock has been battered of late by weak financial results. The company announced in February that it would miss expectations for Q1. Since then the VeriFone stock has shed more than 30 percent of its value.

"Doug Bergeron has led VeriFone since 2001 and overseen its transformation into an industry leader," McGinn said in a statement. "On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank Doug for his dedication and his many contributions."

VeriFone said it has formed a search committee to find the company's next CEO.

The company has been at the forefront of mobile payments from the point of sale side for some time, committing to the addition of NFC to its POS terminals and partnering with providers like MasterCard to encourage mobile payment adoption. However, its venture into the mobile POS market, SAIL, failed to take off and was shut down after six months.

Bergeron also had a public spat with mobile POS provider Square over the security of Square's card reading dongles. In early 2011 Bergeron accused Square of facilitating card skimming by offering a product that didn't encrypt card data. The companies exchanged open letters on the issue with Square eventually updating its reader to include encryption.

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