July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Hulu’s longtime chief exec Jason Kilar announced his resignation from the company he help build into a web TV powerhouse over five years ago.

“I’ve decided to depart Hulu in Q1. I am currently working with the Board to ensure there is ample runway to manage this transition,” Kilar said in a letter posted on the Hulu blog.

From the letter:

“It is impossible to state in words how much this team means to me, how much Hulu means to me. But I’ll do my best. For me, the journey started with a move to California and a walk into an empty office suite in early July 2007. In the weeks afterward, some brave souls that were willing to look past the many naysayers and ClownCo moniker jumped aboard and got about the business of innovating and building. Five and a half years later, thanks to the missionary work of this amazing 600+ worldwide team and courageous, prescient partners, we are fortunate to have collectively built a culture that matters, a brand that matters, a business that matters.  Our convictions and our relentless pursuit of better ways have made the difference and will continue to make the difference. We have grown from a few hundred thousand in revenue in 2007 to generating almost $700 million in revenue in 2012 alone. We have created a video subscription service that is growing unusually fast, adding over 200K new subscribers in the past 7 days alone (a new record). We have proudly generated over $1 Billion for our content partners since we excitedly entered private beta in October 2007. Our video advertising service delivers world-class results and sets the pace for the industry. We have authored scores of inventions along the way.”

Kilar isn’t the only member of the executive team taking a leave from Hulu. Senior Vice President and CTO Richard Tom is also departing the company, according to Kilar’s letter. At this point neither Kilar or Tom have indicated where they’ll be headed next, but there is plenty of speculation as to why the chose now to leave.

The departures may have something to do with an offer by Hulu’s media company owners to buy out long-time employee’s shares in the service, which was part of the deal Hulu made with former partner Providence Equity. Last week, AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka predicted that with the deal going into effect (and former partners now getting their big payout) many of those employees would soon depart Hulu.

Providence and the smaller partners previously served as mediators over disagreements between Hulu’s media company owners (Disney, News Corp., and Comcast) about the service’s business strategy. Disney feels Hulu should continue to focus on its primarily free, ad-supported service of recent TV shows, while News Corp. thinks Hulu best chance at success is in becoming a subscription-only, ad-supported service that’s supplemental to cable TV providers. (Comcast cannot make business decisions about Hulu due to an agreement it made with the FCC when it purchased NBCUniversal.)

About the only thing both Disney and News Corp. can agree on is boosting the number of commercials that play during a show. And since both produce their own programming (via Disney’s ABC network and News Corp.’s Fox), it seems unlikely that Hulu will continue its strategy for producing original content.

It’ll be interesting to see who replaces Kilar. My guess is that Hulu’s next CEO will be someone who has previously held a high-level management position in the television industry.

“The board and Thomas mutually agreed that the CEO position wasn’t the right fit,” Glaser said in a press release Tuesday. “We thank Thomas for the contributions he has made in moving RealNetworks forward and wish him well in his new endeavors.”

The move spells trouble for the Seattle-based Internet media company. RealNetworks recently sold its video software and a number of its patents to Intel for $120 million amid rumors that it is struggling to remain profitable. Nielsen, who was brought on board to carve out a new product strategy for the company, told VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi in January that he was initially optimistic about the deal as it allowed Real to continue using the patents in current and future products.

The software company told the Puget Sound Business Journal that Nielsen is not looking for a position elsewhere. Prior to Real, Nielsen enjoyed lengthy stints at Adobe and Microsoft.

This is not the first time the company has experienced rapid turnaround in its upper ranks. VentureBeat reported in spring 2011 about the early departure of Bob Kimball, who resigned as the company’s chief executive after little more than a year on the job.

That’s a pretty good payout for about five months’ work, though it’s much less than it could have been if Thompson had received a full severance. Yahoo won’t be paying a larger sum, however, because it is terminating him “with cause.” Thompson was hired from eBay’s PayPal division on January 4 of this year, and resigned May 13 after a growing scandal over a false claim on his résumé that he had a degree in computer science.

In a filing from Yahoo, which AllThingsD reported today, Yahoo wrote that “Yahoo! and Mr. Thompson agreed to terminate all other agreements between them, including Mr. Thompson’s offer letter, all outstanding but not fully vested equity awards and Yahoo!’s other plans and arrangements for the benefit of employees, with no severance compensation.” Although Thompson claimed he was innocent, evidence obtained from Yahoo’s board confirmed his counterfeit academic record.

Thompson could have received more under different circumstances, but Yahoo declared it had “cause” per its Code of Ethics and Yahoo! Policies. In the end, Yahoo saved a large severance payment due to its claim. Thompson, however, isn’t leaving empty-handed. Along with the $7 million and vested stock options, the former president of PayPal drew a salary in 2010, prior to moving to Yahoo, that added up to nearly $10.4 million.

In a statement from Yahoo’s press room, the company promoted Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo’s executive vice president,  as the interim CEO, and Fred Amoroso as the chairman of the board.

Prior to resigning, VentureBeat reported that the 54-year-old disclosed to Yahoo’s board of directors that he has thyroid cancer. He is currently undergoing treatment. To date, Thompson has yet to refute the board’s presented evidence.

Best Buy head Brian Dunn has resigned from his position as CEO and director, the company hastily announced today. Director G. Mike Mikan will step in as interim CEO while the company searches for a new CEO.

“There were no disagreements between Mr. Dunn and the company on any matter relating to operations, financial controls, policies or procedures,” the company wrote in a press release. “There was mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership to address the challenges that face the company.”

Best Buy has increasingly become a showroom for Amazon, which more often than not sells the same electronics goods as Best Buy but at a lower cost. The company likely realizes how many challenges it faces to keep consumers coming to its stores. Under Dunn, Best Buy recently announced that it would close 50 stores to help it edge back to being a profitable company.

Dunn started as a Best Buy store associate in 1985 and eventually worked his way up to CEO in June 2009. When he started, Best Buy began facing incredibly tough competition from Amazon and Walmart. Dunn did not radically change the company’s strategy to deal with these threats. Still, Dunn leaves on a forcibly upbeat note:

“I have enjoyed every one of my 28 years with this company, and I leave it today in position for a strong future,” said Dunn. “I am proud of my fellow employees and I wish them the best.”

Best Buy photo: Pat Pilon/Flickr

The resignation became final on Saturday March 16, though TiVo hasn’t officially released a statement on the news. Tom Rogers, TiVo chief executive officer, issued a statement to Deadline.com saying, ”We are extremely grateful to Jim for his years of dedication and his commitment to innovation that he has provided to TiVo since its founding. We are pleased that he will remain on in an advisory capacity and look forward to working with him in this new capacity in the future.”

TiVo spokesperson Jessica Loebig Monney was also quoted saying that, ”Jim is headed off to pursue his next ‘big idea,’” so perhaps he’s got something in the works.

Barton will become a consultant for the DVR company, receiving $25,000 per month for his services, according to the SEC filing.

Barton and co-founder Mike Ramsey incorporated TiVo in 1997 after launching at DEMO. A year later, trials of the service began in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the service officially launched to the public at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show.

TiVo gained a lot of popularity in the early 2000s for its digital video recording (DVR) set-top boxes. TV viewers could record TV shows to watch later and fast forward through commercials. TiVo built its own software that will also record shows it thinks the viewer may enjoy. The original TiVo DVR digitized and compressed video from antenna, cable, and satellite broadcasts. The company later released a DVR that worked exclusively with satellite provider DirecTV, called the DirecTiVo.

Hat tip Deadline.com

10. “No, Jobs would never be called Steve Jock,” writes Patrick Dorsey at ESPN. “But the now-former Apple CEO impacted athletics in many, many ways.” Dorsey goes on to list them in this article “Steve Jobs had a major impact on the sports world.”

9. Want to talk to your friends about the future of Apple leadership without sounding like an idiot? Read the article “After Steve Jobs’ resignation, 5 top executives at Apple” from the Economic Times. It’s short and sweet and gives a “who’s who” of executives you will be hearing about now that Jobs stepping down.

8. Lot’s of news sites are speculating about Jobs’ health. Elizabeth Landau at CNN writes about this topic well in “Piecing together details of Jobs’ health history.“

7. Dave Caolo at TUAW.com has this interesting post: “Steve Jobs has 313 patents to his name, including some unexpected.”

6. “The moment Apple’s biggest fan met Steve Jobs” on The Next Web is a big, warm, fuzzy story that will make you want to get a haircut.

5. Oh, The Onion. “New Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘I’m Thinking Printers’ “

4. This story really is number 1, but since it’s my story I’m going to act like it isn’t (it is) and stick it in here at number 4: “Why Apple employees avoid getting in the elevator with Steve Jobs“

3. TheGadgets.net does a great breakdown of Jobs’ top inventions with pictures in the post “Top Inventions of Steve Jobs.” If you don’t have a whole lot of time to read, this story is a fun skimmer.

2. “Steve Jobs steps down the first time: The 1985 press coverage” from Technologizer.com is a good roundup of what major news outlets reported that year. Some of it is being repeated now, almost verbatim. I nabbed the InfoWorld image used in this post from them. It’s fantastic.

1. If this list isn’t enough, KQED has 14 more stories to checkout.

People are having an emotional reaction, even though the market has had a lot of time to prepare for this. Apple’s stock price in after-hours trading is $357.10, down 5.07 percent. Apple’s valuation now is $348.75 billion. The valuation has slipped below that of Exxon Mobil, which is valued at $357.56 billion.

Jobs appears to be universally liked by Apple employees. Jobs has a 97 percent approval rating among Apple’s workers, according to nearly 1,000 reviews by Apple employees on Glassdoor, a jobs and career community. Jobs is the No. 3-highest-ranked CEO on Glassdoor of all CEOs ranked on the site.

“The world owes an enormous debt to Steve,” said Steve Perlman, the creator of Apple’s original QuickTime player and the current CEO of OnLive. “He has spearheaded so many of the tech and design paradigms that today we take for granted. Steve is one of the most influential and inspirational people of our era, and his direct leadership of Apple will be missed.”

“This is bad news.  Steve is a fighter, not a lover, and this means the fight is over,” said Trip Hawkins, who spent his early years working on multimedia at Apple and who is now CEO of Digital Chocolate. “Steve is the most remarkable person I have ever known.  I consider him the greatest CEO in history because he rescued Apple and Pixar at the same time, and both were major turnarounds.  Most CEOs never achieve a successful turnaround or even a pivot, and they are very hard to do in large corporations. Steve defined our generation and if the history books only mention one person from this period it will be him.”

“Sad to see Steve step down, but also sure that Apple will continue to be very successful and that his values and approaches have been effectively institutionalized,” said Neil Young, chief executive of Ngmoco, whose business includes making games for Apple devices.

“I feel overwhelming pain, sorrow and empathy for Steve and Laurene and their kids,” said Bing Gordon, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. [I feel] “hope that Apple’s leaders can maintain and grow his legacy. Awe to have lived and worked in the same era as steve jobs. Our industry will be diminished without his leadership.”

“Although we don’t personally know each other, I want to say thank you for being an inspiration to countless entrepreneurs such as myself to go out and “Think different,” said Nathan Lands, CEO and founder of Gamify. “Your story is an amazing and inspirational one, and the inspired beauty and soul you infused into every product is something I think will go down in history. Wishing you health and happiness.”

“Although we have anticipated Steve being gone from Apple, this reality is a harsh reminder of the legacy of Steve,” said Jay Elliot, former senior vice president of Apple and author of The Steve Jobs Way. “I am not sure we ever really thought this would happen. When I first met Steve in his late 20s, worked with him into his 30s and even meeting him several years ago, he is still that “kid” that has so much passion for his products as if time for Steve has stood still. Who else has founded a company and 35 years later is creating products for a new millennium. That is what we have lost.

Elliot added, “Apple will be OK with Tim Cook he is a solid executive who understands the real innovative operations of Apple and is able to execute Steve’s vision. But the “founder” is gone. Hard for me to believe. I view Steve as the worlds greatest consumer advocate we have ever had. Steve’s vision for products transcends all ages from school children to the elderly. Only Walt Disney ever effected us like Steve has!”

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also had a reaction in an interview with Bloomberg. “He’s going to go down in history as the most important technical leader ever,” said Wozniak.

What’s your own reaction? Please send it to us at tips@venturebeat.com or write it into the comments.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Mere days after Nokia named Microsoft’s Stephen Elop as its new CEO, comes another major management change for the Finnish cellphone manufacturer. The company announced today that executive vice president and head of Mobile Solutions Anssi Vanjoki has resigned with six months notice.

Vanjoki, who has been with the company since 1991, will continue with his duties in Nokia’s Mobile Solutions division — which develops smartphones like its upcoming N8 and E7 devices — until his departure.

The announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time for Nokia, which is holding its Nokia Week event in London, England this week. The event is the company’s chance to show it can innovate and compete with newer smartphone titans like Android and Google, but that’s going to be a tough message to sell if it keeps losing executives.

Vanjoki’s resignation may have come about because he was passed over for the CEO position, GigaOm points out. And there’s a good chance it won’t be the last major management change we see this week for the company.

Such abrupt management changes won’t help Nokia’s image as a company that’s in trouble, but in the long run having new employees in these key executive positions may help to fix Nokia’s innovation problems.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Popular electronics company Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced that CEO Mark Hurd has resigned immediately, in agreement with the board of directors. The resignation comes after a board investigation against Hurd for alleged sexual harassment claims by a former contractor.

The resignation comes as a big surprise, because of Hurd’s buttoned-down reputation. He’s also credited for having turned around HP, leading it back to its current status as the largest computer company in the world. The company had suffered years of turmoil under his predecessor Carly Fiorina. Under her rein, the company had fallen to No. 2. behind Dell.

According to the company’s announcement, the investigation concluded no violation of HP’s sexual harassment policy, but did find violations of HP’s standards of business conduct, including a pattern of “falsified expenses.” Hurd made the following statement:

As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career. After a number of discussions with members of the board, I will move aside and the board will search for new leadership. This is a painful decision for me to make after five years at HP, but I believe it would be difficult for me to continue as an effective leader at HP and I believe this is the only decision the board and I could make at this time. I want to stress that this in no way reflects on the operating performance or financial integrity of HP.

The board of directors has appointed Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak as interim CEO. She will also keep her current position as CFO while the created search committee works to find a new CEO and board chairman.