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UPDATE 2-Las Vegas Sands replaces COO Weidner

Published: 09 Mar 2009 17:28:51 PST

* Weidner also leaves board

* Stock down almost 15 percent (Adds analyst comment, background, stock price)

LOS ANGELES, March 9 - Casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp said on Monday that William Weidner, formerly the company's president and chief operating officer, "is no longer with the organization."

No explanation was given for Weidner's departure. He is also no longer a member of the company's board, said Sands.

The company, which has been struggling to avoid defaulting on its debt, operates the Palazzo and Venetian resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and has two casinos in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

"It is widely-known that there was some dissension within management," said Robert LaFleur, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial. "They had set up a special committee ... Apparently that didn't work out so well."

Sands said in regulatory filings last year that its board had formed an executive committee "to address a number of outstanding differences between our chief executive officer and other senior management members."

The Las Vegas-based company said Michael Leven, a director since August 2004, will become its president and chief operating officer, effective April 1.

A company representative was not immediately available for comment.

Leven has 48 years of experience in the hospitality business, Sands said. He founded US Franchise Systems Inc, which developed and franchised the Microtel Inns & Suites and Hawthorn Suites hotel chains. He has also held posts at Holiday Inn Worldwide and Days Inn of America.

"He has no experience in the gaming business as far as I know," LaFleur said.

Sands Chairman and Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson told the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit last week that the company expects to avoid a debt default through a combination of cost cutting, the sale of two retail malls and increased business in Macau.

Shares of Sands, which traded near $85 a year ago, were down 26 cents, or 14.7 percent, at $1.51 on the New York Stock Exchange.