comScore has named Madison Avenue vet and 360i
founder Bryan Wiener its CEO, and added former GroupM digital chief Rob Norman to its board.
The moves follow a protracted period of disarray for comScore, which had been the
dominant supplier of digital media audience ratings, but has lost steam and share -- and some would say, market leadership -- to Nielsen.
Wiener, who has served as executive chairman
of 360i since turning the CEO role over to Sarah Hoftstetter, fills a CEO slot at comScore that has been vacant since Gian Fulgoni retired in November 2017.
In a related move, Bill
Livek is moving from executive vice chairman and president of comScore to become vice chairman and a special advisor to Wiener.
The new roles are effective May 30.
Current comScore board member Brent Rosenthal has been named non-executive chair, and Norman -- who has had advisory roles at a number of companies since retiring from chief digital officer
of GroupM -- joins the board.
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The new management team couldn’t come at a better time for comScore shareholders, which have experienced a protracted series of
restatements of the company's earnings. In late March, comScore reported current quarterly earnings for the quarter ending December 31, 2017 in a filing that included restatements of earnings for
2013, 2014, 2015 and its first public results reported for 2016 and 2017.
Wall Street analysts say comScore’s operations and its marketplace esteem were negatively impacted by
the distractions associated with its restatement and management turnover, although they believe it could become resurgent and muster serious competition vis a vis Nielsen, especially given concerns
about its growing monopolistic control of both analogue and digital media.