Good Luck to Jim Lanzone; CEO Departs Ask.com
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal |
IAC will see a change of CEO for its Ask.com search engine. Jim Lanzone is leaving to join venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures as entrepreneur-in-residence. Jim Safka will take over the role of Ask.com’s CEO immediately, as well as retain his title as CEO of Primal Ventures, an IAC investment arm.
Safka served as CEO of IAC’s online dating unit Match.com from 2004 to 2007. He has been credited with cultivating 25 percent annual revenue growth during his tenure and an annual 52 percent rise in operating income before amortization.
In the last year, Ask.com has expanded its services, launched an aggressive marketing campaign, pushed into mobile Web applications and has seen the number of unique users rise.
Lanzone has accomplished a lot during his tenure, and I’m sure Safka will soon realize that it’s not going to be easy taking market share from Google.
Best wishes to Jim Lanzone!
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January 9th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
[…] engine to join venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures as entrepreneur-in-residence. According to Marketing Pilgrim, Jim Safka will take over the role of Ask.com’s CEO role starting immediately. Safka will […]
January 10th, 2008 at 7:40 am
i believe too this will be not a easy market
January 10th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I will miss Jim’s open attitude and kindly demeanor. I hope Jim Safka knows how big the shoes are he plans to fill. Best of luck to you Jim!! I will note this on my blog as well.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:06 am
[…] post by Andy Beal Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and […]
January 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Sad to see Jim Lanzone go. And I’m sure Jim Safka is more than aware of the difficulty in taking away market share from Google. Hopefully new Jim can continue the innovation the old Jim has been bringing to Ask.
January 12th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
[…] reports that Jim Safka has taken over as CEO of Ask.com and that Jim Lanzone has joined Redpoint Ventures […]