LinkedIn rival Xing’s founder and CEO Lars Hinrichs has stepped down from the post to concentrate on “new entrepreneurial challenges”, and is being replaced by Dr. Stefan Gross-Selbeck, eBay’s general manager for Germany. But Hinrichs remains on the company’s board and remains its largest shareholder, he confirmed on his blog. No further info given behind the CEO swap. Under Hinrichs, Xing has tried to scale up to fight LinkedIn by buying smaller, country-specific European business networks - its acquisitions in Spain and Turkey totalling €14 million ($17.6 million). On its home ground in Europe, it’s beating LinkedIn. Release.

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