Industry Moves
Industry Moves: Volpi Out As Joost Chairman
Mike Volpi kept the role of chairman when Joost switched to a white-label tech provider and he left as CEO for Index Ventures, an investor in the video startup. That’s over, too. Volpi told paidContent, following a report on SAI that he was out as chairman, “I will confirm that I am no longer associated with Joost.” He referred “all other Joost-related matters” to the company, but said in response to a follow up that Index Ventures still holds its investment in Joost. Volpi and Index Venture’s Danny Rimer are still listed as portfolio contacts for Joost. Matt Zelesko succeeded Volpi as CEO in June.
It’s unclear if the move took place before or after the news that Index Ventures is part of the investor group acquiring Skype from eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) for $1.9 billion. Rimer and Volpi are the VC firm’s contacts and could be on the board. (One suggestion is Volpi could wind up running Skype but Rimer was highly complimentary of the current team during a recent interview.) Volpi was on the Skype board as an exec at Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) before the sale to eBay and Index Ventures also invested in Skype the first time around. Joost was founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the founders of Skype now in court with eBay over the technology another company of theirs licenses as the backbone for Skype. Volpi joined Joost in mid-2007, following a $45 million round for the startup that included Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Viacom and CBS.
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Posted In: Industry Moves, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Venture Capital, Technologies / Formats, Broadband, danny rimer, index ventures, joost, mike volpi
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