| Thu, Feb 05, 2009 |
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Industry Moves: InfoSpace Changes CEO After Six Years
InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP), now focused only on online directory and meta search services after divesting itself from mobile two years ago, has changed its longtime CEO: Jim Voelker is retiring after six years at the company, though he will remain as board chairman through 2010. Taking over is William Lansing, former president and CEO of Value Vision Media, where he launched ShopNBC.TV, the online component of the shopping TV channel by the same name. VVM is 30 percent owned by GE Equity and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE). Lansing left VVM in October 2007 after the board asked him to resign, though no specific reason was given at the time. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a partner of General Atlantic Partners, a private-equity investment firm. Prior to his tenure at GA, Lansing was CEO of NBC Internet, part of NBC during the first Internet boom. InfoSpace is announcing its Q408 results next week, so possibly more on this move then… More details in release.
This news comes as a lawsuit filed against INSP recently alleged that the Bellevue company’s executives and board members arranged an improper $49 million gift for themselves as special dividends in 2007 and 2008.
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paidContent.org
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Industry Moves: InfoSpace Changes CEO After Six Years
InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP), now focused only on online directory and meta search services after divesting itself from mobile two years ago, has changed its longtime CEO: Jim Voelker is retiring after six years at the company, though he will remain as board chairman through 2010. Taking over is William Lansing, former president and CEO of Value Vision Media, where he launched ShopNBC.TV, the online component of the shopping TV channel by the same name. VVM is 30 percent owned by GE Equity and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE). Lansing left VVM in October 2007 after the board asked him to resign, though no specific reason was given at the time. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a partner of General Atlantic Partners, a private-equity investment firm. Prior to his tenure at GA, Lansing was CEO of NBC Internet, part of NBC during the first Internet boom. Infospace is announcing its Q408 results next week, so possibly more on this move then…More details in release.
This news comes as a lawsuit filed against INSP recently alleged that the Bellevue company’s executives and board members arranged an improper $49 million gift for themselves as special dividends in 2007 and 2008.
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paidContent.org
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Industry Moves: InfoSpace Changes CEO After Six Years
InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP), now focused only on online directory and meta search services after divesting off mobile two years ago, has changed its longtime CEO: Jim Voelker is retiring after six years at the company, and though he will remain as board chairman through 2010. Taking over is William Lansing, former president and CEO of Value Vision Media, where he launched ShopNBC.TV, the online component of the shopping TV channel by the same name. VVM is 30 percent owned by GE Equity and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE). Lansing left VVM in October 2007 after the board asked him to resign, though no specific reason was given at that point. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a partner of General Atlantic Partners, a private equity investment firm. Prior to his tenure at GA, Lansing was CEO of NBC Internet, part of NBC during the first Internet boom. Infospace is announcing its Q408 results next week, so possibly more on this move then…More details in release.
This news comes as a lawsuit filed against INSP recently alleged that the Bellevue company’s executives and board members arranged an improper $49 million gift for themselves as special dividends in 2007 and 2008.
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paidContent.org
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| Wed, Apr 16, 2008 |
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Industry Moves: Gersh-WMA; National Geographic; InfoSpace; Discovery; NextNew-Cella
-- William Morris: Former Disney/ABC SVP of business development Bruce Gersh has joined talent agency William Morris, where he will focus on the development of intellectual property on behalf of the agency’s clients. Gersh was involved in putting full episodes of shows on ABC.com and iTunes, developing and launching ABC Mobile, establishing the business model of bringing ABC series to DVD and developing product lines, video games, soundtracks and books. At WMA, Gersh will be working with clients across every area of the business, reporting to John Fogelman, executive vp and worldwide head of motion pictures.
-- National Geographic Digital Media: Rob Covey has been promoted to SVP of content development and design for online material from managing editor and creative director for National Geographic Media online. Reporting to Betsy Scolnik, president of NGDM, Covey will be responsible for conveying all of NGM’s properties online, integrating NGM.com into NGDM. Before joining NGM in 2007, Covey was SVP for content and design at *Discovery Communications*. Dave Smith has also been named director of Web technology planning and now joins Stavros Hilaris’ Technology Group. Smith played a key role in NGM’s online product development and previously reported to Covey.
-- Discovery: Former MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) executive James Hitchcock has been named marketing and branding officer at Discovery Channel. He will lead and direct the network’s branding and will be responsible for developing creative and media strategies, across all platforms. Hitchcock most recently was SVP marketing and creative at MTVN’s cable network CMT.
-- NextNew Networks: Online video producer/syndicator NextNew Networks has tapped broadcast and ad agency vet Bill Cella to help manage the company’s ad sales strategy. While Cella has been named to NextNew’s advisory board, the company has also hired his new media sales rep company, The Cella Group. In his role as an advisor, Cella will be charged with mapping out ad strategy. He recently spent six years as chairman and CEO of Interpublic Group’s Magna Global Worldwide, a media negotiation, research and programming unit that handled over $25 billion of media spending.
-- InfoSpace: Michael Glover has been promoted to VP of business development from senior director. In this role he will report directly to Jim Voelker, chairman, president and CEO, and lead all aspects of InfoSpace’s (NSDQ: INSP) partner strategy. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Glover was director of marketing at Uniglobe.com. Release.
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| Thu, Mar 13, 2008 |
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Updated: Motricity Also Received Investment From Velocity; Miller Joins Board
Velocity is on a tear: the investment group led by Jon Miller (ex-AOL (
NYSE: TWX) CEO) and Ross Levinsohn (ex-Fox Interactive Head) has now become an investor in Motricity...this was part of the big December 2007 round of $185 million. The investment was discretely mentioned in a press release today that was focused on Miller joining Motricity’s board. No other details were released, so there’s no word on how much Velocity invested. A Motricity spokesman didn’t immediately return phone calls requesting comment.
In the Velocity release, Miller is credited with turning around AOL by restructuring its core business lines and helping the company deliver record annual profit growth of 21 percent. Motricity itself is in the middle of a restructuring. Following the purchase of InfoSpace, it announced last week, that it would meld the two company’s products together, leaning heavily on the InfoSpace mCore platform, lay off 250 people at its headquarters at Durham, N.C. and relocate to Bellevue to be with InfoSpace (
NSDQ: INSP). The investment also follows comments by Icahn this week that questioned whether he should have made the investment, although he reaffirmed his faith in the technology.
Motricity’s CEO Ryan Wuerch, said in the release: “He understands the complexity of our ecosystem and how to structure a business that scales. He’ll add substantial value to Motricity as we continue to grow.” We’ve been covering all the changes at Motricity on MocoNews.
UPDATE: D
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