Online video startup Metacafe Tuesday confirmed that founder Arik Czerniak was stepping down as CEO, to be replaced by former Electronic Arts executive Erick Hachenburg. Czerniak will remain at the
company, focusing on products and strategy. News of the move was first reported Tuesday on the GigaOm blog. The news comes the same week that Metacafe, which has offices in Palo Alto and Israel,
announced hiring ex-MobiTV executive Erik Smith as vice president of content and programming. Incoming CEO Hachenburg was previously senior vice president, global publishing at Electronic Arts,
responsible for expanding the company's business in China. He was also founder and CEO of casual gaming site Pogo.com prior to its acquisition by EA in 2001. Metacafe was rumored to be near a $200
million acquisition deal last year. The blog TechCrunch reported in December that the deal may have collapsed over concerns about Metacafe's traffic. It cited comScore figures showing a 25% decline in
the fall--from a high of 4.2 million in September to 3.1 million in November.
