Reuters
David Rosenblatt, former CEO of DoubleClick, which Google bought for $3.1 billion two years ago, is leaving his post as president of Google's global display advertising business. Rosenblatt is the third major executive to leave the search giant in the last two months, after Tim Armstrong, former head of Americas sales, left to become AOL CEO and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, former president of Google's Asia Pacific and Latin America operations, left to join a venture capital firm. RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler said the trio of Google sales execs "carried a significant amount of weight in the industry, especially …
D: All Things Digital
Sources tell Kara Swisher that new CEO Tim Armstrong is ousting Greg Coleman, head of AOL's Platform A, after just three months on the job. CFO Nisha Kumar is also out. Coleman was brought in by former CEO Randy Falco in February, replacing Lynda Clarizio, but Falco was fired just two weeks after Coleman got there. Unsurprisingly, given Armstrong's Google roots, Coleman will be replaced by a former Google sales exec, Jeff Levick, who sources said had a close relationship with Armstrong while both were working at the search giant. Levick was VP of industry development & marketing for the …
New York Post
The New York Post reports that Facebook continues to hold exploratory meetings with private equity firms about raising new funding, but this time, the two sides are a whopping $3 billion apart on what Facebook is actually worth. "Multiple sources" indicate that Facebook has held such valuation discussions with Providence Equity Partners, General Atlantic, Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and others. The sources described the talks as informal "and more opportunistic on the part of Facebook than anything else." Earlier this week, in an interview with Bloomberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg confirmed this: "We absolutely do not need to take …
BusinessWeek
Once again, gaming is going "gangbusters" in a downturn, except this time, "it takes a lot less" than producing powerful (read: pricey) game consoles and big blockbusters to be a success, says BusinessWeek's Sarah Lacey. In fact, some of the most impressive growth in gaming right now comes from games that are inherently social. Take "Guitar Hero," "Rock Band" and the lineup of interactive titles from Nintendo's Wii: these are much less expensive to produce than blockbusers like "Grand Theft Auto." Much less talked about is the surge in gaming on mobile phones and social media sites. Many of these …
GigaOm
The venture capital model is failing, and two different groups are promoting two different solutions to the problem, says GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham. One says VCs should promote smaller initial public offerings, while another says the industry is raising too much money and needs to shrink. Higginbotham agrees with both diagnoses, but thinks that VC firms should brace themselves for a smaller overall industry. The National Venture Capital Association on Wednesday offered a four-point plan to solve the problem, noting that there needs to be more sub-$50 million IPOs. To achieve this, the NVCA encourages more boutique investment banks and accounting …
CNet
Barron's Online
The Wall Street Journal
Silicon Alley Insider
Ad revenue at AOL fell a "startling" 20% in the first quarter, notes Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, although operating profit of $255 million was "impressive considering the wrenching changes AOL has gone through in the past five years." Blodget added that it's especially impressive considering how much money Microsoft is still losing in its Internet division. Even so, $255 million is only about half of what AOL was earning a few years ago. Of course, the advertising collapse is most of the reason why former President Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant were replaced by new Chairman and CEO …
Ad Age
In an interview at the 4A's annual leadership conference, Tim Armstrong discussed the many challenges he faces as the new CEO of AOL. Since taking over as CEO, Armstrong has launched a review of the company's vast array of brands, making no promises about the long-term survival of any of AOL's current offerings, including its MediaGlow publishing division and Platform A advertising platform. "The understanding of the value of brands at AOL has gotten a little gray over time," Armstrong said. "There are cases where we have tens of millions of people touching a brand every day," but people inside …