News Byte
Tricia Duryee in News on April 25 at 9:00 am PT
CouchSurfing, which connects travelers online with a place to stay in someone’s home, has appointed Tony Espinoza as its new CEO. Co-founder Dan Hoffer, who was previously CEO, will become president. Prior to joining CouchSurfing, Espinoza was VP at AOL and at MTV Networks. Last summer, CouchSurfing changed its status from a nonprofit and raised nearly $8 million in venture capital.
Peter Kafka in Media on February 14 at 1:08 pm PT
Also on Loeb’s team: Turnaround consultant Harry Wilson and media consultant Michael Wolf.
Kara Swisher in News on April 4, 2011 at 10:14 am PT
While Facebook should not be expecting big bouquets of love from its partner and investor Microsoft, at least it’s not going to be getting legal brickbats either.
According to sources close to the situation, the pair have settled a dispute over the Silicon Valley social networking site’s talent raid of Microsoft’s head of global ad sales, Carolyn Everson, for a similar job at Facebook.
News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on March 23, 2011 at 4:54 am PT
Heather Hopkins Freeland, who ran marketing and sales for MTV Networks Digital, has jumped from the Viacom unit to head marketing at Gilt City, the local offers company spun out of Gilt Groupe. Freeland joined Viacom in 2008 to build out MTV’s “Tribes” ad networks business.
Tricia Duryee in Commerce on March 9, 2011 at 4:00 am PT
Think there’s already too many Groupon clones? Think again. Group Commerce, which is coming out of stealth today, has the pedigree and the funding to be a viable contender. What’s more, it is coming out of the gate running with four major publishing partners already signed up on its publisher platform.
Kara Swisher in News on March 2, 2011 at 4:10 pm PT
Microsoft–furious over a recent talent grab of its top advertising exec by Facebook–has been considering a wide range of options, including legal action to block the move, according to sources close to the situation.
While it might not come to that, tensions between the two companies, who have partnered closely in the past, are running high over the hiring of Carolyn Everson. She had been head of global ad sales at Microsoft and has been hired to be VP of global sales at Facebook.
Kara Swisher in News on February 15, 2011 at 4:19 pm PT
Apparently, it’s not only in Google’s pond where Facebook fishes for talent–the social networking giant has recruited Microsoft’s global advertising head Carolyn Everson as one of its top sales execs.
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the hiring, after a query by BoomTown.
The move will surely cause some tensions with the software giant, which is both a prominent partner of and investor in Facebook, especially since Everson was only hired at Microsoft last June after a long search.
Peter Kafka in Media on August 22, 2010 at 3:37 pm PT
Rupert Murdoch’s iPad-friendly digital newspaper doesn’t have a launch date or a name yet, but it is hiring. News Corp. has tapped Greg Clayman, who runs digital distribution for Viacom, to run the new publication’s business operations, multiple sources tell me.
